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

FOCI PI Meeting Minutes - 14 September 2000

ATTENDING

Mark Ablondi, Kevin Bailey, Lorenzo Ciannelli, Al Hermann, Art Kendall, Allen Macklin, Ann Matarese, Bern Megrey, Jeff Napp, Jim Overland, Susan Picquelle (rapporteur), Ron Reed, Phyllis Stabeno

• SEBSCC and GLOBEC proposals funded for FOCI-type research:  Several proposals have been or will soon be recommended for award to FOCI scientists for SEBSCC Phase III research.  Nine proposals were received and six will probably be funded.  Likely projects include Site 2 monitoring, indices from phases I and II monitoring, integrating sediment trap information, bird and mammal research, and synthesizing 1995-to-present data from the Pribilofs.  Emphasis was given to proposals that synthesize indices produced in previous SEBSCC research to predict age-0 and age-1 pollock survival in the Southeast Bering Sea.  Of course, funding is contingent on the money being allocated in the federal budget.  Several FOCI scientists also received GLOBEC funding.  The funded projects include ocean current modeling, atmospheric modeling, moorings, drifters, production of fish prey, measuring environmental data on commercial fishing boats.  Unfortunately, a proposal from Bailey, Doyle, et al. was not funded.

 
• Special symposium on the Bering Sea planned for PICES X:  Al Tyler, University of Alaska Fairbanks, a SEBSCC Technical Advisor, is leading the effort to establish a special symposium on the Bering Sea at the 10th Anniversary PICES meeting to be held during October 2001, in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  An option considered was to have the symposium concurrent with, but not part of, PICES.  This idea was discarded due to the additional cost it would involve.  Several possible symposium topics were suggested by FOCI PIs: (1) research findings in the Bering Sea from the last 10 years, (2) climatic variability in the Bering Sea, (3) variability in the Bering Sea during the PICES decade, (4) fisheries oceanography in the Bering Sea, (5) the phytoplankton shift that began in 1997 and the resulting ecosystem changes, (6) decadal vs. interannual variability.  Whatever topic we recommend, it should tie in with the Climate Change and Carrying Capacity  (CCCC) program of PICES.  Al Tyler will need to lobby for the symposium at the upcoming PICES meeting in Hakodate, Japan, this October, and we need to support Al in his efforts.

 
• Inner Front meeting planned for early November:  This is the last year of funding for the NSF Bering Sea Inner Front project, and this meeting will review results, consider new proposals, and begin putting together a special issue to contain synthesis papers resulting from this research.

 
• SEBSCC PI meeting:  The annual SEBSCC PI meeting will be held late this fall or early next winter, after final award of Phase III research contracts.

• RV Alpha Helix cruise summary (HX234):  Jeff Napp and Chris Baier were on the Alpha Helix from June 26 to July 21, working with Terry Whitledge taking water samples and CTDs in support of the North Pacific Marine Research Program project "Summertime plankton community structure and trophic dynamics in the SE Bering Sea shelf: importance for nutrient cycling and prey production for planktivorous fishes." A specific goal of Jeff's and Chris's participation on the cruise was to study summer plankton and nutrient cycling in the coccolithophore bloom.  Unfortunately, the bloom occurred after the cruise. Next year the cruise will be delayed until August in hopes of coinciding with a coccolithophorid bloom.

• RV Oshoro Maru cruise summary (OM00): Lorenzo Ciannelli reported that the cruise was in the eastern Bering Sea from July 21 to August 3, departing from Victoria, Canada, and concluding in Dutch Harbor.  The main purpose of the cruise was to monitor age-0 pollock, and these fish were sampled using Methot tows.  Various samples were also collected for special studies for Jeff Napp, for Janet Duffy-Anderson, for Art Kendall, and for Lorenzo.  From the Methot tow survey, it was observed that tows with high abundance of age-0 pollock consisted of very small fish.  Fewer jellyfish were observed compared to 1999, and the individuals were larger than usual.  There are tentative plans to conduct a similar cruise on the Oshoro Maru in 2001, and possibly 2002, but the timing of that survey may be different.

• Current cruises: The RV Ron Brown is currently conducting a survey of on-shelf transport (RB00-07 Leg 1).  Ned Cokelet, chief scientist, reported that the Ron Brown is a good platform for collecting Bering Sea oceanographic data.  Matt Wilson, chief scientist on the RV Miller Freeman cruise (MF00-11), reports finding high densities of juvenile pollock in bays, and the year classes are depth stratified.

 
• Mooring 3 in the southeastern Bering Sea:  The surface biophysical platform at site 3 stopped transmitting in August.  It was not sighted during RB00-07 Leg 1, but later in the cruise, it's acoustic signal was detected 107 miles north of where it originally was anchored.  Bill Parker will attempt to retrieve the mooring on the upcoming Ron Brown cruise.  If recovery fails, there will be a substantial loss of equipment.

• Apparent marine ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Alaska and US west coast: There is anecdotal evidence of broad ecosystem changes in the Gulf of Alaska.  Several sources have observed a huge increase in the number of small pelagic fish in the Gulf, e.g., capelin, eulachon, and smelt.  Sea lion pups weigh more.  Bird guano is full of capelin scales.  Sardines are rebounding off the Oregon coast in the California Current, a change from the anchovy dominance that has occurred on the US west coast for the past few decades.  Salmon returns are high on the US west coast.

• Eddies in Shelikof Strait and southeastern Bering Sea:  Phyllis Stabeno reported on eddies detected by drifters in Shelikof Strait and in the Bering Sea.  Of the three Shelikof drifters, one stayed in a persistent eddy.  Transport in Shelikof appears to be weak this year.  The Miller Freeman (MF00-11) may drop Line 8 stations to allow them to study this eddy instead.  The drifters in the Bering Sea show the presence of cyclonic eddies.  This year is atypical in that there is no structure or organization and the flow on the southeastern shelf is very sluggish.  The drifters traveled half the distance they normally do.

• FOCI Shelikof Strait recruitment forecast:  Bern Megrey stated that the preliminary FOCI forecast for recruitment of the 2000 year class is average.  Elements include Kodiak precipitation (average recruitment), Shelikof Strait wind mixing (average to strong recruitment) and advection (average recruitment), late larval index (average recruitment), and time series of recruitment (missing).  Precipitation at Kodiak was below the 30-year average (1962-1991) for January, May, and June (31%, 35%, and 91%, respectively, of the mean monthly precipitation), and above average for February through April (111%, 135%, and 166%, respectively).  The low precipitation of January and May offset the benefits of high February through April precipitation toward production of fresh water runoff with its connection to enhanced potential for ocean eddies, thought conducive to pollock larvae survival.  For the third year in a row, wind mixing was less than average for each of the first six months of the year (48%, 36%, 56%, 27%, 29%, and 54%, January through June).  Weak winter winds this year did not aid concentration of nutrients in the photic zone. Weak spring winds, as experienced especially during April and May, are thought to better enable first feeding pollock larvae to locate and capture food.  Advection through Shelikof Strait this year was very sluggish, and this and the quasi-permanent eddy found over the Shelikof sea valley exit this spring and summer probably affected survival.  Results from the late larval survey had higher counts than last year.  The forecast as yet is missing the time series of recruitment element, because this year's stock assessments produced by REFM is delayed due to work on the Steller sea lion issue.

The next FOCI PI meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 12 October 2000, in the AFSC Director's Conference Room (4/2143).  Please submit to Allen Macklin, 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 next 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.