Information on the annual variability in abundance and growth of juvenile groundfish can be useful for predicting fisheries stocks, but is often poorly known owing to difficulties in sampling fish in their first year of life. In the Western Gulf of Alaska (WGoA) and Eastern Bering Sea (EBS) ecosystems, three species of puffin (tufted and horned puffin, Fratercula cirrhata, Fratercula corniculata, and rhinoceros auklet, Cerorhinca monocerata, Alcidae), regularly prey upon (i.e., “sample”) age-0 groundfish, including walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogramma, Gadidae) and Pacific cod (Gadus microcephalus, Gadidae). Here, we test the hypothesis that integrating puffin dietary data with walleye pollock stock assessment data provides information useful for fisheries management, including indices of interannual variation in age-0 abundance and growth. To test this hypothesis, we conducted cross-correlation and regression analyses of puffin-based indices and spawning stock biomass (SSB) for the WGoA and EBS walleye pollock stocks. For the WGoA, SSB leads the abundance of age-0 fish in the puffin diet, indicating that puffins sample the downstream production of the WGoA spawning stock. By contrast, the abundance and growth of age-0 fish sampled by puffins lead SSB for the EBS stock by 1–3 years, indicating that the puffin diet proxies incoming year class strength for this stock. Our study indicates connectivity between the WGoA and EBS walleye pollock stocks. Integration of non-traditional data sources, such as seabird diet data, with stock assessment data appears useful to inform information gaps important for managing US fisheries in the North Pacific.

中文翻译：

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整合海鸟饮食和底层鱼类种群评估数据：海雀能否预测北太平洋狭鳕产卵种群的生物量？

关于幼年底层鱼类丰度和生长的年度变化的信息可用于预测渔业资源，但由于难以在第一年对鱼类进行取样，人们通常知之甚少。在阿拉斯加西部湾 (WGoA) 和东白令海 (EBS) 生态系统中，三种海雀（簇绒和角海雀、Fratercula cirrhata、Fraterculacorniculata和犀牛 auklet 、Cerorhinca monocerata、Alcidae）经常捕食（即， “样本”) 0 岁底层鱼类，包括狭鳕 ( Gadus chalcogramma , Gadidae) 和太平洋鳕鱼 ( Gadus microcephalus, 鲱科)。在这里，我们检验了将海雀饮食数据与鳕鱼种群评估数据整合为渔业管理提供有用信息的假设，包括年龄 0 丰度和生长的年际变化指数。为了检验这一假设，我们对 WGoA 和 EBS 鳕鱼种群的海雀指数和产卵种群生物量 (SSB) 进行了互相关和回归分析。对于 WGoA，SSB 领先于海雀饮食中 0 龄鱼的丰度，表明海雀对 WGoA 产卵种群的下游生产进行采样。相比之下，海雀采样的 0 龄鱼的丰度和生长使 EBS 种群的 SSB 领先 1-3 年，这表明海雀饮食代表了该种群的传入年份等级强度。我们的研究表明 WGoA 和 EBS 鳕鱼种群之间的联系。将海鸟饮食数据等非传统数据源与种群评估数据相结合似乎有助于发现对管理美国北太平洋渔业很重要的信息差距。