A total of 174 stations and 205 tows were fished on hydroacoustic targets in July 1996 to 1999. A total of 260,831 fish were captured in all four years. In all years, the Barren Islands had an order of magnitude more fish than Kachemak Bay, and Kachemak Bay had at least twice as many fish as Chisik. General fish trends are as follows: Near the Barren Islands walleye pollock was most abundant. At the Chugach Islands (the nearshore Barrens area) Pacific sand lance were the dominant species with juvenile Pacific herring also present in the tows. For the entire Barren Island region, Pacific sand lance dominated the species composition. Kachemak Bay catches were dominated by walleye pollock and Pacific sand lance. Pacific herring, and Pacific cod represented < 10% species composition. Fish schools at Chisik were consistently mixed with Pacific sand lance, longfin smelt, walleye pollock, salmonids, Pricklebacks, Pacific cod, and Pacific sandfish.

1999 mid-water trawls gave a slightly different picture. Most notably in 1999, capelin were in high abundance in Lower Cook Inlet. General fish trends are as follows: Barren Island catches were dominated by sand lance (91%) and capelin (7%). There were less juvenile herring in 1999 around the Chugach Islands than in previous years. Kachemak Bay catches consisted mostly of sand lance (88%), with a relatively high percentage of larval pricklebacks and osmerids (7%), and a decrease in walleye pollock in Kachemak Bay was observed. Capelin and sand lance dominated the Chisik catch. As typical of Chisik, there were a lot of mixed schools and high species richness.