During the first quarter of 2012, Resource Ecology and Ecosystem Modeling (REEM) program staff conducted stomach contents analysis on samples from the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea.
A total of 4,149 groundfish stomachs were analyzed.
Three predator species were analyzed from the Gulf of Alaska, arrowtooth flounder was analyzed from the Aleutian Islands, and six predator species were analyzed from the Bering Sea.
In total, 7,213 records were added to the North Pacific Groundfish Diet Database.
Octopod beaks found in the stomach contents (accumulated during the past year) were measured to estimate the prey-size of these octopods.
In preparation for stable isotope analysis, 314 muscle and liver tissue samples from Alaskan groundfish were dried and homogenized.
Fishery observers collected stomach samples from 17 arrowtooth flounder and 37 Pacific cod from the Aleutian Islands region; and 31 arrowtooth flounder, 117 Pacific cod and 1,005 walleye pollock from the eastern Bering Sea fishing grounds.
By Troy Buckley, Geoff Lang, Mei-Sun Yang, Richard Hibpshman, Kimberly Sawyer,
Caroline Robinson, Sean Rohan and Mike Levine
