MSI: Little Port Walter Marine Station
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Little Port Walter Marine Station |
Little Port Walter (LPW) Marine Station is a research unit of Auke Bay Laboratories located 110 miles south of Juneau near the southern tip of Baranof Island. LPW is the oldest year-round biological research station in Alaska and has been host to a wide variety of fisheries research projects since 1934. The station is located on U.S. Forest Service land in Tongass National Forest and is accessible only by boat or floatplane.
LPW is located in a small estuarine bay adjacent to Chatham Strait near the open Gulf of Alaska and is ideally suited for a broad range of studies on Alaska's fisheries. Sashin Creek with natural runs of salmonids flows into the head of the bay where daily counts of salmon entering and leaving the stream are made. These and other LPW studies provide important long-term data sets to help NOAA Fisheries better understand affects of climatic changes on fluctuating populations of marine resources. Two NOAA Fisheries families live at LPW year-round. Other NOAA scientists periodically commute from TSMRI to conduct research projects. During peak seasonal periods 20 researchers and support staff may be living and working at LPW.
Research facilities include an experimental hatchery with freshwater, saltwater raceways and marine net pens. Two laboratories include a behavior laboratory capable of detailed observation on species in fresh water, salt water, or simulated intertidal environments.
Recent studies include hatchery and wild stock interactions in chinook salmon, effects of crude oil on survival and homing behavior of pink salmon, ESA recovery studies of steelhead, growth rates in marine corals, habitat behavior and growth of juvenile rockfish and oceanographic research. Studies at LPW include cooperative programs with other NOAA laboratories, several universities, ADF&G, and Regional Aquaculture Associations.
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LPW will celebrate 75 years of contribution to the Nation’s fishery resources in 2009 |
Contact:
Bill Heard
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries
Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau AK 99801
(907) 723-6003
Bill.Heard@noaa.gov
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