First observations of fine-scale juvenile sablefish movements in the wild reveal behavioral patterns that may influence survival
By: Christine Baier
Sablefish, butterfish, black cod – by any name, people call this fish delicious. Its delicate texture, buttery flavor and rich omega-3 content add up to a high value fishery: while sablefish make up a small portion of commercial catch by volume, their high price generates a lot of income for Alaska’s seafood industry—a big economic bang per fish.
To keep a fishery productive over time, managers need to know how fish populations respond to environmental changes and human activity. Understanding how these factors influence survival of vulnerable juvenile fish is crucial to predicting and ensuring recruitment (the number of fish that grow to a size commercially profitable to catch) to the fishery.
Despite their value in the seafood industry, there is a lot we don’t know about sablefish.
Photo: A juvenile sablefish, tagged and ready to be released back into the wild. Photo: Kari Fenske, NOAA Fisheries