U.S. Department of Commerce / NOAA	/ OAR /  PMEL  / OERD\  \ NMFS / AFSC / RACE/	FOCI
	Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations

James Bunn, Ned Cokelet, Carrie Hadden, Al Hermann, Carol Ladd, Allen Macklin, Ann Matarese, Bern Megrey, Jeff Napp, Phyllis Stabeno, Matt Wilson (rapporteur)

• SEBSCC working groups:  A SEBSCC Synthesis Working Group meeting will be held in Seattle on February 14-15, 2002  Members should review and accomplish assigned tasks before the meeting.  The SEBSCC Indices Working Group is planning their next meeting for May 2002.

• Clarence Pautzke has been named Executive Director of the North Pacific Marine Research Board.

• There will be a meeting of Steller sea lion researchers in Anchorage from March 19-21, 2002.  For more information, contact Lowell Fritz (lowell.fritz@noaa.gov).

• Steller sea lion research funds for FY 2002 have been appropriated by Congress  to NMFS and other endowed parties.  Unlike last year, when some funds went directly to OAR and NOS for climate and predator/prey studies, the funds for these subjects were appropriated to NMFS with the understanding that they be spent on research in those areas.  PMEL and AFSC scientists have submitted proposals for research funds.  Four teams are advising NMFS/AFSC on submissions: Marine Mammals and Predation, Forage Fish, Fishery Interaction, and Biophysics/Climate. Funding decisions are pending.

FOCI leaders are considering the benefits of research goals that are aimed at ecosystem-level processes. Efforts to better define such goals will effectively begin with a retreat during late January.  This, and subsequent, more inclusive meetings will ensure that any new program goals adequately reflect current research needs and interests, and that pursuit of these goals is coordinated with relevant research activity by other groups such as REFM, NMML and academic institutions. Please send to Phyllis Stabeno (phyllis.stabeno@noaa.gov) or Jeff Napp (jeff.napp@noaa.gov) any questions or suggestions that you would like discussed by the plan team during the first meeting.

• Planning for the 2002 field season is well underway.  Cruise instructions are posted on FOCI's web site (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci) for the first two cruises, January 28-February 3, and February 3-9.

• The date for a pre-season meeting with NOAA Ship Miller Freeman personnel has not been announced yet.

• The Cruise Instruction template and Standard Operating Instructions for the Miller Freeman that Chief Scientists use to prepare cruise instructions are undergoing modification.  Contract James Bunn (james.a.bunn@noaa.gov) for instructions on how to proceed.

• Chief Scientists are encouraged to post letters of appreciation for crew performance in appropriate locations aboard ship at the end of their cruises.

Jeff Napp proposed that a science topic for a future meeting be the physical and biological conditions/processes in Shelikof Strait in relation to the greater Gulf of Alaska.

Because of the upcoming FOCI meetings, the SEBSCC Synthesis Working Group meeting, and the AGU/ASLO meeting, the February FOCI PI meeting is canceled.  The next meeting will be March 14, 2002, in the AFSC Director's Conference Room (4/2143). Please submit to Allen Macklin (allen.macklin@noaa.gov), no later than the day before the meeting, agenda items and fax-ready copies of figures or handouts that you intend to present at the meeting. Alternately, presentation materials may be posted on the WWW or e-mailed to remote participants before the meeting.

Mail corrections and addenda to the FOCI Coordinator.