Cruises were conducted off the northern Washington coast each year during 1967–72 to study trends in the availability and biological characteristics of Pacific Ocean perch (Sebastes alutus).There were marked differences in catch rate between cruises, and corresponding differences in age composition and age–length structure indicated that they resulted from differential availability of an old, slow-growing segment of the population to on-bottom trawling. Females from this segment of the population were particularly available when the cruise coincided with the period of peak spawning, and both sexes were available during the 1972 summer cruise.Within cruises, adults from different portions of the bathymetric range showed similar age composition, but there was an inverse relationship between depth and size attained by age 15. Size compositions consequently contained a smaller proportion of large fish as depth increased.Juveniles were confined to the shallow portions of the bathymetric range. There were obvious between-year changes in the length and age composition of juveniles, caused by the temporal progression of a dominant 1961 year-class.Fluctuations in availability make it difficult to monitor changes in mortality and since age composition also varies with availability, the problem is compounded further. Unless all segments of the population are located and sampled in proportion to their abundance, estimates of mortality can be made only between those cruises where the old, slow-growing component of the population is equally available.