233 
National Marine 
Fisheries Service Fishery Bulletin 
NOAA ^ established in 1881 ■<?. 
Spencer F. Baird 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Patterns of movement, growth, and survival 
of adult sablefish iAnopiopoma fimbria} at 
contrasting depths in slope waters off Oregon 
Email address for contact author: susan.sogard@noaa.gov 
Abstract —Demersal fish inhabiting 
continental slopes experience colder 
temperatures, increasing hydrostatic 
pressure, decreasing oxygen satura¬ 
tion, and decreasing productivity 
with increased depth. We examined 
depth-related patterns in small- 
and large-scale movement, growth, 
and relative survival of sablefish 
{Anoplopoma fimbria) tagged dur¬ 
ing 1996-2004 in Oregon waters 
at depths of 141-1225 m; 2614 of 
17,400 fish were recaptured as of 
December 2016. Recapture rates in¬ 
dicated significant size-dependent 
mortality. Discard mortality was 
affected by surface temperature for 
small fish (<55 cm in fork length 
[FL]) from upper slope depths (<400 
m). Depth effects on recapture rates 
reflected differences in fishing ef¬ 
fort. Most recaptures were near the 
initial capture depth. Although 91% 
of the recaptures were within 200 
km of the tagging location, some 
individuals migrated thousands of 
kilometers, reaching the western 
Aleutian Islands. Growth rates were 
faster for females than for males 
and decreased with depth. Sablefish 
in the deepest depths sampled had 
extremely slow growth rates (<2 cm 
FL/year), low dispersal (2.4%), and 
were largely female (81%). Prior 
studies of age distribution indicate 
that deep slope habitats also sup¬ 
port greater longevity, potentially 
providing a refuge for older fish and 
a buffering effect to longevity over¬ 
fishing, depending on spatial differ¬ 
ences in exploitation rates. 
Manuscript submitted 10 April 2016. 
Manuscript accepted 24 February 2017. 
Fish. Bull. 115:233-251 (2017). 
Online publication date: 24 March 2017. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.115.2.10 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Susan M. Sogard (contact author)' 
Steven A, Berkeley^ 
' Fisheries Ecology Division 
Southwest Fisheries Science Center 
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA 
110 McAllister Way 
Santa Cruz, California 95060 
2 Long Marine Laboratory 
University of California 
100 McAllister Way 
Santa Cruz, California 95060 
Sablefish occupy a remarkably broad 
geographic range in outer shelf and 
slope waters of the northern Pacific 
Ocean, from southern Baja Califor¬ 
nia around the Pacific Rim to the 
coast of Japan (Hart, 1973). Mature 
adults typically occur at depths >100 
m, and some occur at depths >2700 
m (Beamish et al.'). Sablefish are 
broadcast spawners, releasing eggs at 
slope depths from January through 
March in waters of British Colum¬ 
bia, Canada (Mason et al., 1983), and 
from November through March in 
Oregon waters (Macewicz and Hunt¬ 
er, 1994). Larval and early juvenile 
stages occur in the neuston (upper 
few meters) layer (Shenker, 1988). In 
southeast Alaska and British Colum¬ 
bia waters, juveniles often migrate 
inshore and occupy shallow bays and 
sounds (Rutecki and Varosi, 1997). 
From Washington through California, 
juveniles settle to demersal habitats 
but typically remain offshore (Heya- 
moto and Alton, 1965). Adults have 
' Beamish, R. J., C. Houle, C .Wood, and 
R. Scarsbrook. 1979. A summary of 
sablefish tagging and exploratory trap¬ 
ping studies conducted during 1978 by 
the Pacific Biological Station. Can. 
Data Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 162, 113 
p. [Available from website.] 
slow growth, low mortality, and life 
spans up to 114 years (Beamish and 
McFarlane, 2000). Much of the adult 
habitat occurs along a depth gradi¬ 
ent of decreasing oxygen saturation, 
decreasing temperatures, and de¬ 
creasing productivity. 
The sablefish population is thought 
to comprise 2 stocks: a northern or 
Alaska stock, ranging from northwest 
Vancouver Island through the Aleu¬ 
tian Islands and Bering Sea to Japan, 
and a southern or west coast stock, 
ranging from southwest Vancouver 
Island to Baja California (Kimura 
et al., 1998). The 2 stocks differ in 
growth rates and life history pa¬ 
rameters, including size and age at 
maturity. Northern fish attain larger 
asymptotic sizes, estimated as 67.7 
cm in fork length (FL) for males and 
80.1 cm FL for females (Echave et al., 
2012), whereas estimates for south¬ 
ern fish are 56.3 cm FL for males and 
64.2 cm FL for females (Johnson et 
al.^); however, there is considerable 
^ Johnson, K. F., M. B. Rudd, M. Pons, C. A. 
Akselrud, Q. Lee, F. Hurtado-Ferro, M. A. 
Haltuch, and O. S. Hamel. 2016. Sta¬ 
tus of the U.S. sablefish resource in 
2015, 176 p. Pacific Fishery Manage¬ 
ment Council, Portland, OR. [Available 
from website.] 
