Fishery Resources Theodore R. Merrell, Jr. Northwest Fisheries Center, Auke Bay Fisheries ~aboratory,National ~arineFisheries Sewice, of the National Ocear~icand Atmospl~ericAdministration, Vestern Aleutians Auke Bay, Alaska Tlte fishery resources in the zuestent Aleutian Islnnds are zuill probably recover somezuhnt from tlieir preseat low diverse, nbtrnrlant, nrid heavily exploited, primarily by levels if average enuironniental conditions prevail and Japanese nnd Soviet fishermen. Seven groups make up the internationnl regulntions are successft!l in co,ttrolling the bulk of the crcrrent catch: snlmo~t (sockeye, chum, and high-seas cntch. King crnb harvests by U. S. fisher~ne,t pink), king crabs, Pacific hnlibut, Pncific ocean perch, shotrld grndrcally increase ns preuiotrsly atres~~loitedstocks sablefish, wnlleye pollock, mid Pacific cod. Three species of are fished. Pacific halibi~l,snblefislt, nnd Pncific ocean perch whales (syenn, fin, and sei) are also caplared. Tlre marine stoclrs nnd catcites will probnbly continue nt current low enuironmerrt is highly prodirctiue and is relaliuely trn- leuels. Il'alleye pollock a~tdPacific cod catches will prob- nffecterl by ,,ton's activities otlter fhai~fishing. nbly incrense somewhat. il'liole stocks will continue their Prospects for co,ttinaed or espanded fishery ltnruesls precipitous decline, nnd tlieir harvest will probnbly end vary nccording to species. Pink mid cltt~ersalmon stocks will within n few years nsn coaseq~~e~zceof co~rseruntion efforts probably remnin at about current levels. Sockeye stocks and internntionnl treaties. The fishery resources around Amcliitka Island are the \vestern Aleutia~ls to fish virgin stocks of abulldailt and diverse, but rtiitil recently man Ims Pacific ocean perch, Sebnstes nlutus. During this used them to only a limited extent. Although the saliie period both nations expanded tlieir whaling original Aleut inhabitants of Amcliitka depended fleets tliroogliont tlic North Pacific Ocean. on the sea for most of their food, they had little Soviet or Japanese tra\vlers were frequently impact on the fish stocks because fishing n~ethods observed fishing off Amchitka during the Atomic were primitive. Their refuse middens, formed Energy Co~nmission (AEC) occupation of the during several milleni~uns of continuous occupa- island. Direct evidc~lceof the magnitude of these tion, consist almost entirely of the skeletal remains Japanese and Soviet fisheries is tllc treincndous of maine fishes, inanlmals, and in\'ertebrates accumulation of derelict fishing gear on (Desautels et ill., 1970). The size of the original Aiiichitka's beaches (Fig. 1). In 1972 I sitrveyed Aleut population is uiikrto~r~~~,but all cstiniates are 10,000 111 (33,000 ft) of these beaclies to provide a over 10,000, and nearly all the Aleutian Islands basis for estimating the total amount of fishing were inhabited; on Amchitka alone, 73 separate debris on tlte island. I estimated that at least occupation sites have bee11 identified (RlcCartncy, 22,000 items ~iladeof synthetic inaterials were on Chap. 5, this volume). After the Alc~~tianswerc the island beaches, including nearly 12 tons of discovered by tlic Western \Yorld in the eighteentli discarded scraps of tra\\rl web md 6600 salino~t ccntury, the Aleut populatioii d\vindlcd to less gill-net floats (Anonymous, 1973). than 1000 for the entire Aleutiail chain. As a By 1971 the Soviet and Japanese fislliilg effort result, for the 100-year period bet\\.een the mid- in Alelltians llad declined, and ollly tile nineteenth and tlie mid-tweiitietll centuries, the Japanese high-seas sal111on gill-net fishery was fishery resources \\,ere disturbed very little by man. contilluillg at a le\,el of effort colnparable to In the 1950s fish stocks in the western Aleu- peak years in the 1960s. The stocks of Pacific tians were exploited on a large scale on offshore or ocean perch and ~vhaleshad been so diininished by deepwater species that had not becn available to intensive fishing that they could no longer support the Aleuts. In 1952 Japan expanded the scope of the previous high levels of effort. its high-seas gil1.net fishing for salmon, O~ico~l~y?i- Although this relati\cely lo\$, fishing effort. is chlts spp., from Asian waters to the western continuing, the basic productivity of the seas in the Aleutians, ;md in tlie early 1960s Japan and the western Aleutians is unimpaired, and it seems Soviet Union sent enormous fleets of tra\vlers to ine\ritablc that additional species as well as renlna~~t 315 Alaska's continental shelf in competition with the foreign fleets. So far there has been little direct competition between the United States and foreign fleets in the western Aleutians. Several international agreements restrict the foreign fleets to species and waters not fished by U. S. fishermen, \vhose catches come mostly fro111 waters inside the 4.8-km (3-mile) territorial limit. Also, the United States has no distant-water trawl fleets, a reflection of the lack of ecollomic incentives to the U. S. fishing industry uilder institutional and market conditions that have prevailed. Discussion in this chapter is limited to the current status of commercially exploited fish and whale stocks around Amchitka. Other sectioils of this volume treat related topics, e.g., physical oceanography (h81cAlister and Favorite, Chap. 16), marine fish communities (Simenstad et al., Chap. 19), sea mammals (Abegglen, Chap. 20), and sea otters (Estes, Chap. 21). The area of coilcern is arbitrarily defined as those waters between longitude 170°E and 170°\\1 and latitude 50% and 55"1\7, which coincides with the area designated as Aleutian area 5 by the Itlterllational North Pacific Fisheries Commission Fig. 1-Japanese salmon giIl.net fragment washed up (INPFC) for reporting catch statistics. Amchitka on Amchitka Island beach. lies in about the center of this area (Figs. 2 and 3). The continei~tal shelf to the east of Amchitka, or recovered stocks of previously fished species \\rill including the Bering Sea and northeast Pacific again be exploited. Ocean, has very luge stocks of fish and intensive fisheries, but they are not considered here. The fishery resources in the wester11 Aleutians are now used only by Japan, the Soviet Union, and Only the major species currently sought within the United States. Other nations, however, may the area of concern by U. S. and foreign fishermen soon begin fishing there. Sout11 Korea has already are discussed here. These include sockeye salmon done some exploratory fishing, and Poland, (0.zerka), chum salmon (0.keta), pink salmon North Korea, \Vest Gerinanjl, wd the People's Re- (0.gorbusclta), coho salmon (0. kisutclz), chinook public of China have expressed interest in fishing in salmon (0. fshawytscha), Pacific ocean perch, the area. sablefish (Anoploponza filnbria), walleye pollock United States fisheries in the western Aleutians (Tlleragra clialcogmnt~~a),Pacific cod (Gadus mac- have been for Pacific halibut and crab, xvhich have rocephaltrs), Pacific halibut (Hippoglosstrs steno- a high unit value. These U. S. fisheries have been lepis), king crab (Pamlitllodes can~tscl~atica),sperm far exceeded it1 intensity, total value, and geo- whale (Pltyseter catodotz), sei whale (Balaenoptera graphic extent by the fisheries of Japan (Fig. 2) borealis), and fin whale (B. physahs). and the U.S.S.R. (Kg. 3), ~vhicl~concentrate 011 Other coini~~ercialspecies it1 this area, which species with a low unit value. In 1972, for are not included in the discussion because they example, over 1300 Japanese aud Soviet vessels make up only a minor portion of the current catch, \\?ere employed in fisheries off Alaska's coast include tanner crab (Clzionoecetes tnn~teri),Dun- (National Marine Fisheries Service, 1973). The geness crab (Cancer ntagister), arrowtooth flounder situation is changing, ho\ve\~er,because the target (Atherestltes stonzias), yello\vfin sole (Linlariada species sought by the foreign tralcrl fleets are being aspem), mck sole (Le/~ic/opsetta bilitieata), and depleted and U. S. fishing is expanding to include flathead sole (Hif>/>oglossoideselassodon). previously ni~exploited crab stocks in the western There is no single source of statistics for all Aleutians. Furthermore, as a result of changing species caught in the western Aleutians, but I have ecoiloinics and regulations, the U. S, fishing indus- included catches for the most recent year available try is exploring the feasibility of tra\vling on (usually 1970 or 1971). Fishevy Reso?~~cesof the ll'estern Alelctians 31 7 i Fig. 2-Japanese fishing areas off Alaska, 1971 (excluding whales). 45' I I I I 170° 170' 1509 1 309 Fig. 3-Soviet fishing areas off i\laska, 1971 (excluding whales). DATA SOURCES foreign and U. S. fishc11nc11and discitss tlte geo- gaphic distribution, relative abundance, and biol- Detailed information on the fishery resources ogy of each species. A paper by Reeves (1973) in the immediate vicinity of Amchitka Islancl is provides similar but more current data for the Gulf scanty. Despite the limitations of available data, it of Alaska. Chitxvood (1969) provides a concise is important to include in this \~olumea risumi of history of Japanese, Soviet, and South ICorean what we kno\\, or can infer about the fishery Fisheries off Alaska through 1966 and describes resources of the western i-ileutians because they are fishing vessels, their numbers, ;u~dwhere they fish. potentially the nlost econo~llically\~aluable co111- I-Iitz (1970) gives detailed descriptions of vessels ponent of the Amchitka marine ecosystem. and fishing methods used by Soviet tra\vl fleets. The only assessment of local resources \\'as ICasahara (1972) reviews Japanese distant-\\rater limited sanlpling of nearshore fish stocks by the fisheries throughout the \vorld; he emphasizes the University of \\'ashington Fisheries Rcsearch Insti- role of international agreements and predicts that tute (FRI) during the AEC testing program. Al- the prospects for continued espansiort are not though Japanese and Soviet scientists investigated bright.