The 2026 Longline Survey of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands on the FV Alaskan Leader : Cruise Report AL-26-01

In 2026, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center completed a bottom longline survey of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands upper continental slope and shelf break. This survey provided stock assessment information related to sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) and several other groundfish species. The primary objectives of the survey were to determine 1) relative abundance of groundfish species through a standardized longline survey, 2) age composition of sablefish through otolith collection, and 3) movement patterns of selected groundfish species through a tag and recapture program. This report provides a summary of raw data and details of operations from the 2026 longline survey as well as trends observed on the survey over the last 20 years. Changes to the survey occurred in 2025 following a cancelled survey in 2024, and this report documents the first year that the domestic survey sampled the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands in the same year and did not sample the Gulf of Alaska.