Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI)

Ned Cokelet, Art Kendall, Mark Koehn, Allen Macklin, Jaff Napp, Jim Overland, Ron Reed, Beth Sinclair, Phyllis Stabeno, Sonia Hamilton (rapporteur).

• A FOCI-sponsored "Workshop on Anomalous Conditions in the southeastern Bering Sea during 1997 and 1998" will be held in Building 9 on the Seattle NOAA campus on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, November 9 and 10, 1998.

• The SEBSCC Annual PI Meeting will be on Saturday, October 24, 1998, in Fairbanks Alaska,  following the 7th PICES meeting. A draft agenda for the meeting may be viewed at http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/sebscc/pimtg_10-98.html.  Principal investigators will give short presentations on how their research relates to three themes:  interannual variability in the southeastern Bering Sea, effects of interannual variability on the ecosystem, and ecosystem indicators that contribute to an index of juvenile pollock survival.

• SEBSCC's Phase II announcement of opportunity will soon appear in the Federal Register. Additional proposals are due within 30 days of the posting of the announcement.  It is doubtful that the Phase II research team will be announced before November.  Funds will be made available as soon as possible.

• Inner front Cruise - Phyllis Stabeno - The cruise was a success but encountered seasonally early storms. The water was warm in August but by the end of the cruise, wind mixing had deepened the mixed layer and the water was colder than at the same time last year. Other than a group of Orcas, no mammals were sited.  Sea bird abundance was low, and those sampled were under weight.  Birds sampled on the Pribilofs in August were also undersized and there were signs of reproductive failure.  Over the shelf, the coccolithophore bloom extended from Nunivak Island to the Pribilofs and to mooring site 2.  Bristol Bay and the coastal regions were not affected.  Shelf waters were rich in nutrients, and there were significant zooplankton as opposed to last year when coccolithophores dominated.

• Professor Kaganovsky - Art Kendall - The Russian ship Professor Kaganovsky has sailed from Dutch Harbor for this year's fall  juvenile pollock cruise.  E-mail communication has been established.

Jim Overland solicited FOCI ideas for a NOAA Coastal Ocean Program workshop that he will attend later this month in Silver Spring, Maryland. Specific instances of FOCI science-management interfaces include:
1) workshops such as the upcoming one on  Bering Sea anomalies,
2) published information on the worldwide web,
3) PI briefings to management and industry representatives, e.g., Fish Expo, North Pacific Fishery Management Council, fishing boat captains;
4) commuinication of ecosystem status to NMFS operational personnel for inclusion in documents circulated to management;
5) articles in lay literature, e.g., Alaska Fishermans Journal, FOCI Brochure;
6) response to queries from industry, e.g., Gulf of Alaska "skinny" pollock.

The next FOCI PI meeting will be held at 10 a.m., Thursday, October 8, 1998, in the AFSC Director's Conference Room.

Please mail corrections to the FOCI Coordinator.
 

U.S. Dept. of Commerce / NOAA / OAR / ERL / PMEL