Contact Information
Fisheries Academic ProgramP.O. Box 757220
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99775-7220
Phone: (907) 474-1130
s.rooney@uaf.edu
Sean RooneyM.S. Student
Thesis Title
Habitat Analysis of Major Fishing Grounds on the Kodiak Shelf, Alaska
Research Overview
The continental shelf and upper slope of the Gulf of Alaska support diverse and commercially important communities of demersal fishes. Twenty-eight video strip transects conducted from a research submersible, together with habitat maps based on interpretation of multibeam sonar data, were used to classify distribution and abundance patterns of fish communities relative to seafloor substrate type, rugosity and water depth on Albatross and Portlock Banks on the Kodiak Shelf in the Gulf of Alaska. These associations were examined across three spatial scales: physiographic-scale, ranging in size from tens to a single kilometer; map resolution-scale, ranging in size from several kilometers to tens of meters; and visual-scale, ranging in size from meters to centimeters. A total of 5,778 fish were recorded from 33 taxa. Fish community distribution patterns were largely correlated with depth and to a lesser extent with substrate type and rugosity. Individual fish species habitat associations were also strongly influenced by depth, substrate type and rugosity; however, the spatial scale at which these factors were relevant varied by fish species. Future challenges will be to identify and incorporate relevant factors into habitat maps in order to improve the utility of these maps in indentifying fish-habitat associations at the community level.