METHODS
The FIRST project was conduced in three Oregon ports: Astoria, Newport and Charleston. Two seafood processing plants in Astoria and Charleston, and one seafood processing plant in Newport participated in the project. Two seafood plant workers were chosen from each plant and were trained on selecting fish randomly, and measuring and recording the fish lengths.The species measured were sablefish (Anaplopoma fimbria), Dover sole (Microstomus pacificus), and yellowtail rockfish (Sebastes flavidus) from all groundfish boat trip categories (i.e., trawl, longline, pot, etc.). For each sampled trip, 50 individual fish were randomly selected and measured to the nearest centimeter.
The plant workers attempted to measure two 50-fish length samples a week. One sample was to be taken during business hours and the other sample during non-business hours. The author attempted to visit each plant every two weeks primarily to collect quality control samples using the same sampling performed by the seafood plant workers.