St John the Baptist Bay

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

After disappointing low catches of live age-0 rockfish in coastal waters, we decided to sample St. John the Baptist bay in Salisbury Sound, which is about 30 miles north of Sitka. This bay is a known nursery ground for juvenile sablefish and we thought we might find some rockfish there as well. Unfortunately we did not find either, but we did encounter numerous age-0 through age-3 pollock and herring.


Scientists sorting live age-0 pollock from older age classes                       St. John the Baptist Bay looking out on                                                                                                                                           Salisbury Sound and the Gulf of Alaska in the distance

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