Comparisons between observed and reported catches of retained and discarded groundfish in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska

Abstract

U.S. fisheries observers and U.S. processing operations each submit a weekly record of fish catch and production. This report compares these two sets of reports from the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska Regions for 1990 and 1991.

Most observers aboard catcher/processors using trawl gear reported a discard rate similar to that reported by the vessels. For shoreside processing operations, the observed discard rate from the delivering vessels was frequently 10-20 percentage points higher than the discard rate reported by the shoreside processors. Overall, observers reported higher amounts of total catch than did their observed vessels.


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