Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering

The Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering (RACE) Division conducts fishery surveys to measure the distribution and abundance of approximately 40 commercially important fish and crab stocks in the eastern Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and marine waters off California, Oregon, and Washington. Data derived from these surveys are analyzed by Center scientists and supplied to fishery management agencies and to the commercial fishing industry. RACE Division Programs operate in three locations:

The research surveys utilize a range of sampling techniques, mensuration equipment, and fishing gear. A large inventory of such gear is built and maintained by the Division's Survey Gear & Support Program. RACE scientists also use underwater video systems and submersibles to observe fish and crab behavior during capture, and laboratory experiments to measure potential for animal survival after experiencing capture stress. They also work with industry to test modifications of fishing equipment to reduce the take of - or impacts on - incidental species (bycatch), which may be out of season or not of commercial fishing interest.

In 1980, RACE scientists discovered a large concentration of walleye pollock eggs in Shelikof Strait near Kodiak Island. The discovery led to a major pollock fishery in that region, and the development of a cooperative research project called Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI), a joint project between the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) to study the biological and physical processes that control the survival and growth of young pollock in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea as they mature into viable adult stocks.