Distribution and Characteristics of Groundfish Populations

The Salish Sea multi-species synoptic bottom trawl survey is part of a coordinated set of long-term Groundfish surveys covering most of the BC coast. The Salish Sea survey covers the Canadian Salish Sea from north of Cortez Island, south to Saturna Island. It follows a random depth stratified design in which the surveyed area is divided into 2 km2 blocks and each block is assigned to one of four depth strata based on the average bottom depth in the block. Each survey year blocks are randomly selected within each depth strata. The objective of the survey is to provide fishery independent abundance indices of benthic and near benthic fish species and to collect biological samples from selected species. The abundance indices and biological information are incorporated into stock assessments, status reports, and research publications. Biological information collected during the 2012 and 2015 surveys includes species composition, and over 1,000 samples of length, sex, weight, maturity or age for 47 different species