The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) currently manages black rockfish (Sebastes melanops) in the absence of fishery independent data. GIS was used to create a habitat suitability model & identify important habitat for black rockfish in a portion of Southeast Alaska. The Benthic Terrain Modeler was used to transform bathymetric data into a terrain ruggedness layer to identify areas of sea floor roughness. A Thiessen polygon tool was chosen to estimate substrate from points acquired from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) & ADF&G. Each of the three rasters were layered with known locations of black rockfish to identify suitability criteria. Each raster was reclassed, combined & processed using weighted overlay to create a final habitat suitability map. The final layer identified five ranked suitability classes (low to high suitability) for black rockfish in Southeast Alaska. Results from this model are used to identify key habitat for future surveys.
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