Administrative Report on the First Cooperative Research Survey of Bottomfish Abundance and Life History in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (2025)

The Mariana Archipelago Bottomfish Life History Survey (SE-25-04) aboard NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette gathered fishery-independent data on bottomfish in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), as mandated by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, to ensure sustainable yield. The 2025 assessment confirmed no overfishing in 2023. Objectives of the survey included characterizing abundance/size via hook-and-line fishing and collecting life history samples (otoliths, gonads, eye lenses, tissue) for age, growth, maturity, stock structure, and mortality. A secondary objective was Isaac-Kidd midwater trawl (IKMT) tows for ichthyoplankton, providing habitat, spawning, and ecosystem productivity insights. Lack of such data would hinder stock assessments and force reliance on less precise models.