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This document reports on the 1996 international cooperative salmon research cruise of the Oshoro maru, and summarizes data collected from 1994 to1996. An objective of international cooperative high-seas salmon research conducted under the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission Science Plan is salmon stock assessment through annual surveys along standard transects in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Salmon surveys conducted by the Oshoro maru, Hokkaido University, Faculty of Fisheries, along 1800 in the central North Pacific Ocean in June since 1978 have provided a valuable time series of fisheries and oceanographic data. This was the third consecutive year of cooperative Japan-U.S. research gilinet sampling for salmon along a 145°W transect in the central Gulf of Alaska in early July. In 1996, Oshoro maru catches by gillnet totaled 361 salmon in the central North Pacific (180 ° transect) and 1,982 salmon in the central Gulf of Alaska. At longline stations, 17 salmon along the 180 ° transect and 33 salmon in the Gulf of Alaska were tagged and released. Biological samples and data were collected from salmon for various studies of distribution, abundance, stock origins, maturity and growth