Fisheries-Oceanography
Coordinated Investigations (FOCI)
FOCI PI Meeting Minutes — 19 February 1998
ATTENDANCE
Kevin Bailey, Art Kendall, Jeff Napp, Ned Cokelet,
Al Hermann, Art Kendall, Allen Macklin, Jim Overland, Ron Reed, Phyllis
Stabeno, Cynthia Tynan, Liz Dobbins (rapporteur)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Mike Dagg (candidate for division leader of CARD) will
visit the campus on 2/19-20.
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FOCI suggests that representatives of GLOBEC, University
of Alaska Fairbanks, and NMFS Alaska region be invited to PMEL's 25th Anniversary
Program Review.
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Initiative 2000 status — Overland: If funded, this initiative
will gather biophysical data to help address decadal variability in the
North Pacific. In this $6M/year joint NMFS and OAR proposal, ~$2M/year
will support establishment of a network of environmental monitoring platforms,
while the rest will permit increased biological surveying.
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Bering Sea ecosystem science plan: Congress has enacted
legislation that establishes an "Environmental Improvement and Restoration
Fund" to carry out marine research in the North Pacific. Initial focus
will be on the Bering Sea. A draft science plan, developed in part by FOCI
personnel in response to findings from a multi-agency (NOAA, Dept. of Interior,
Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, University of Alaska, etc.) workshop, has
been accepted as a template for a more complete plan to be written by a
multi-agency working group. NOAA's Bering Sea biophysical metadatabase
will serve as the data repository for historical and future research, and
the Bering Sea and North Pacific theme page will provide a WWW site for
coordination of field sampling plans.
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SEBSCC: Phase II proposals are due April 30. Please
see http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/sebscc/ for guidance.
FIELD SEASON
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FOCI will receive less support than requested from the
Arctic Research Initiative (ARI) second research cycle. The loss of funding
forces alterations to the WECOMA cruise schedule and potential cancellation
of aircraft work. The WECOMA mooring cruise (May 1-5) is unaffected, but
other cruises will be extended to compensate.
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There was also discussion of a possible fall 1998 cruise
on a Russian research ship. If this cannot be arranged, a cooperative cruise
aboard ALPHA HELIX would allow us to maintain the time series of CTD transects
near the Pribilofs. We are still negotiating with the Canadian Coast Guard
to use an icebreaker to complete the fall mooring work.
MEETING REPORTS
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Japanese fisheries oceanography — Kendall: Art Kendall
presented Bering Sea FOCI results at a meeting at Hokkaido University.
The focus of the meeting was on research work done aboard the Oshoro Maru.
A memorandum of understanding between Hokkaido University and the University
of Alaska Fairbanks was updated, and now includes student exchanges. A
volume of extended abstracts documenting the proceedings of the meeting
will be published.
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AGU Ocean Sciences — attendees: The Bering Sea poster
session was well attended, and a draft on anomalous conditions and the
bloom of summer 1997 will be sent to Science. Al Hermann's Shelikof Strait
modeling work was showcased in a new flow realization technology. New developments
in eddy detection, cold water convection, and ADCP configuration of interest
to FOCI were presented and discussed.
NEW BUSINESS
Sea ice has reached the Pribilof Islands. Mooring
site 2 is within the ice by about 1 mi. This will affect planned cruises,
and Mooring 2A has been assembled from available parts for placement at
the ice edge. Mooring 2A might face danger from fishing near the ice edge.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Thursday,
March 12, 1998.
CORRECTIONS
Please mail corrections and additions to
the FOCI Coordinator.
FOCI
Coordinator
MINUTES SELECTION
FOCI HOME PAGE
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