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Fishery Bulletin 106(1 ) 
145°E 150°E 160°E 170°E 180° 170°W 155°W 140°W 125°W 115°W 105°W 
Figure 1 
Map of the area covered in bottom-trawl surveys conducted by the Resource Assessment and 
Conservation Engineering Division of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center between 1999 
and 2004. Surveys of the Bering Sea extended from the Alaska Peninsula to the U.S. -Rus- 
sian border northwest of St. Matthew Island, surveys of the Aleutian Islands extended from 
Unimak Pass west to Stalemate Bank, and surveys of the Gulf of Alaska extended from 
Unimak Pass east to the U.S. -Canada border at Dixon Entrance. Black lines (west and east) 
denote U.S. -Russian and U.S. -Canadian border. Depth contour = 200 m. 
roller gear on the footrope. The southern part of the 
eastern Archipelago from the Islands of Four Moun- 
tains to Unimak Pass has been assessed as part of the 
Gulf of Alaska survey but because zoogeographically 
it is part of the Aleutian Islands and because survey 
methods are the same (Britt and Martin, 2000), it was 
included in our regional study of the Aleutian Islands. 
Haul locations were chosen on the basis of a stratified 
random sampling design, and the region was divided 
into 45 area-depth strata, and bottom time for each 
haul was approximately 15 minutes. For the purposes of 
this study the region was divided into four subregions, 
numbered from west to east, bounded by the major 
deep-water passes and gaps bisecting the archipelago. 
Subregion 1 comprised Stalemate Bank and the Near 
Islands, extending to approximately 174°30'E; subregion 
2 extended east to Amchitka Pass, at the 180° line; 
subregion 3 extended from Amchitka Pass to Amukta 
Pass (approximately 171°30'W); and subregion 4 ex- 
tended from Amukta Pass to Unimak Pass (Fig. 2B). 
For this study, depth strata were combined into three 
depth ranges (<100 m, 101-200 m, and >200 m). For 
more information on the design and methodology of this 
survey, see Zenger (2004). 
The Gulf of Alaska survey was conducted in 1999, 
2001, and 2003. It covered the continental shelf and 
upper slope (to 500 m in 2001, 700 m in 2003, and 1000 
m in 1999) of the Gulf of Alaska from the southern 
part of the eastern Aleutian Islands beginning at the 
Islands of Four Mountains (included for this study in 
the Aleutian Islands region) to the U.S. -Canada border 
at Dixon Entrance, except in 2001 when the survey 
ended to the east at Hinchinbrook Entrance. Survey 
design, methods, and gear were the same as those of 
the Aleutian Islands survey (see Britt and Martin, 
2000). For the purposes of the present study the region 
was divided into five subregions, numbered from west 
to east, corresponding approximately with National 
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) management areas. 
Subregion 1 extended from the tip of the Alaska Penin- 
sula west to 159° W; subregion 2 extended from 159° W 
to the west side of Kodiak Island; subregion 3 extended 
from the west side of Kodiak Island to Hinchinbrook 
Entrance (147°W); subregion 4 extended from Hinchin- 
brook Entrance to Cross Sound at the northern tip of 
the Alexander Archipelago; and subregion 5 included 
the Alexander Archipelago, extending to the U.S. -Can- 
ada border (Fig. 2C). As in the Aleutian Islands region, 
