Alaska Forage Fish Database (AFFD)

There are many different field methods from diet sampling and independent fisheries surveys. For groundfish diet data, a subsample of demersal fish catch from the NMFS bottom trawl survey are selected for stomach content analysis. Collection methods for seabird diet samples at colony sites have varied across time, with samples taken from bill loads, regurgitation, and dissection. Trawls and seines are conducted with design-based, opportunistic and hydroacoustic surveys. Large-mesh bottom trawls conducted by NMFS are sampled at fixed gridded stations or via stratified random sampling. ADFG/NMFS small-mesh bottom trawls focus on targeting shrimp in the western Gulf of Alaska. Surface trawls by NMFS/AFSC conduct sampling along a grid of stations to target species in the epipelagic zone. Midwater trawls from multiple agencies are collected across transects by either targeting schools of fish with hydroacoustic signals or by sampling gridded stations. Nearshore fish communities are sampled via beach seines, purse seines, cast nets, fyke nets, and gill nets. An in-depth description of gear types can be found in the gear table (gear_table.csv). For more information on the methods of each project, please refer to the contributor information table (dataset_contributor_information.csv), which provides descriptions of projects and links to sampling methods.