Maloney and Sigler: Age-specific movement patterns of Anoplopoma fimbria 
309 
Table 2 
Recovery area and depth strata (m) for recovered sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) tagged as juveniles, number of fish for which 
depth was unknown, and total number of tagged fish captured in the recovery area. Proportion of recoveries at depth (bottom 
row) excludes recoveries with unknown depth. Proportion of recoveries by recovery area (rightmost column) includes recoveries 
with unknown depth. GOA = Gulf of Alaska. 
Depth strata (m) 
Recovery area 
1-100 
101-200 
201-300 
301-500 
501-700 
701-1000 
>1000 
Unknown 
Total 
Proportion 
Bering Sea 
4 
9 
4 
1 
18 
0.02 
Aleutian Islands 
3 
5 
39 
7 
8 
62 
0.07 
Western GOA 
4 
6 
19 
28 
7 
10 
74 
0.09 
Central GOA 
25 
43 
48 
90 
19 
2 
28 
255 
0.30 
Eastern GOA 
2 
12 
8 
67 
177 
45 
1 
75 
387 
0.45 
British Columbia 
6 
11 
26 
12 
1 
8 
64 
0.07 
Total 
2 
44 
63 
154 
369 
94 
4 
130 
860 
Proportion 
0.00 
0.06 
0.09 
0.21 
0.51 
0.13 
0.01 
730 
Recovery age (yr) 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 
Figure 2 
Tag recoveries from sablefish ( Anoplopoma fimbria) tagged as juveniles, 
by age (years) and depth (m) for all areas pooled. The size of the circles 
is proportional to the number of recoveries and represents a range from 
1 to 57 recoveries. The symbol (x) represents the median age (years). 
to deep (5-6 years). Only two 2-year-old 
sablefish that had traveled <6 km from 
their release location in St. John Bap- 
tist Bay were recovered in nearshore 
waters (<100 m water depth); no fish 
older than 2 years were recovered in 
nearshore waters. Only one sablefish 
older than 13 years was found in depths 
<300 m and most were found deeper 
than 500 m. 
The most common areas of recovery 
were the central GOA and the east- 
ern GOA, which together accounted for 
75% of all recoveries (Table 2). There 
were more than twice as many recov- 
eries in outside waters as in inside 
waters of the eastern GOA. The most 
common ages of recovered fish in all 
areas except eastern GOA and British 
Columbia were 5 to 7 years (Fig. 3). In 
eastern GOA the most common ages 
at recovery were 3 to 6 years, and in 
British Columbia 6 to 9 years. Fish 
of all ages from 3-10 years old were 
recovered in all areas except the Ber- 
ing Sea, where no fish younger than 4 
years old were recovered. The Bering 
Sea had the fewest recoveries (only 18) 
and the smallest range of ages (4-10 
years, except for one recovery of a 19-year-old fish). 
Most fish 2 years old and most fish older than 12 years 
were recovered in the eastern GOA (Fig. 3). Most recov- 
eries in western areas (Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, 
western Gulf of Alaska) were 12 years old or less. The 
large number of recoveries that occurred in the central 
Gulf of Alaska (30%) and farther west (18%) indicated 
that nearly half of the population had moved westward 
from the eastern Gulf of Alaska (Table 2). 
Movement by age 
Age-specific movement patterns were discernible even 
though multiple ages were found within areas and depths. 
By ages 3 and 4 years, most fish had moved offshore into 
>100 m water depth (Fig. 2). Some had moved to the 
inside waters of the eastern GOA or directly south into 
the waters off British Columbia, but most were found 
in eastern GOA outside waters or in the central GOA 
