Gordie Swartzman         Senior Engineer         EIS Department         Applied Physics Laboratory         University of Washington	Researchers in this project, "Pollock Year-Class-Strength: Synthesis of Acoustic, and Net Data for Age-0 Pollock with Distributions of Predators Prey, and Environmental Data," are examining year-class-strength of Eastern Bering Sea Pollock. Investigators are synthesizing acoustic survey data collected around the Pribilof Islands from 1994-1999 at several frequencies (allowing simultaneous identification of fish shoals and zooplankton patches) with trawl and plankton net sampling and environmental data. We include Piscivorous seabird distribution and abundance data from daytime transects in our analysis. The goal is to develop an index of year-class-strength of juvenile pollock in areas of high abundance where we can study their size during their first autumn and the relative abundance of predators in the neighborhood of rearing areas. APL-UW is also addressing hypotheses based on results of our synthesis to date, concerning the proximity of fish and plankton, their diel behavior and trophic interactions, and how these are affected by environmental conditions (temperature, the hydrodynamic regime for that year, fronts, and currents).