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Fishery Bulletin 106(3) 
A Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Western Gulf of Alaska 
B Central Gulf of Alaska 
C Eastern Gulf of Alaska 
Figure 8 
Relative abundance (weight) from sablefish ( Anoplopoma fimbria) longline sur- 
veys, 1979-2004: Japan-U.S. cooperative longline survey (O) and U.S. (domestic) 
longline survey (A) (Hanselman et al., 2006). The values for the U.S. survey were 
adjusted to account for the higher efficiency of the U.S. survey gear. 
fish. From the time they first venture out of coastal bays 
onto the continental shelf of northern British Columbia 
or the eastern GOA, young fish are subject to northward 
or westward flowing currents. Driven by fresh water 
runoff, the Alaska Coastal Current (ACC) flows north- 
westward close to shore toward the head of the Gulf of 
Alaska (Royer, 1981). From Icy Bay at about 137°W the 
ACC flows 1500 km to Unimak Pass at the eastern end 
of the Aleutian Island chain (Stabeno et al., 2004). This 
inshore current is likely the initial route of most young 
sablefish leaving nursery areas in southeast Alaska. As 
the fish move westward, cross-shelf gullies and canyons 
provide avenues of deeper water leading to the shelf 
break and the upper continental slope, along which runs 
the westward-flowing Alaskan Stream. The potential 
ease of transit from the Alaska Coastal Current on the 
shelf to the Alaskan Stream on the upper slope may help 
to explain the considerable overlap in fish ages that we 
found within and between depths. 
The direction of migratory movement by young sable- 
fish may be influenced by prevailing current direction, 
but the return of adult sablefish along the continental 
slope to the eastern areas of the GOA is presumably 
made against the westward-flowing Alaskan Stream 
and from a lower density area to a higher one. Reed 
and Schumacher (1987) believed that velocities of the 
Alaskan Stream are low in water deeper than 300 
m, and most of the fish travel within a 500-700 m 
depth when returning; therefore swimming against 
the current would not pose a problem for adult fish. 
The return of most adults to the eastern GOA serves 
to maintain the center of the population there and 
likely increases the chance of successful spawning in 
that area. 
