Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) Project

The definition of "critical habitat" in the marine environment is essential to the development of reserves or protected areas in relationship to a sustainable commercial or sport fishery. This proposal will assess and test the appropriate application and effectiveness of a new technology, satellite pop-up tags, that could assist in the assessment of critical marine habitat in the Gulf of Alaska. We will adapt and develop satellite tag technology and software for geolocation tracking of marine fishes using light and depth data from satellite pop-up tags and sea floor bathometry. Tag application and light-geolocation relationships will be tested on live halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) brought into husbandry at the Alaska Sea Life Center and kept under solar-shift regimes expressed during crepuscular and solar light conditions throughout the year in the Gulf of Alaska. These data will be compared to light and depth reading taken from tags placed in situ on live fish deployed from boats and released into their natural habitat and to an array of tags attached to a stationary buoy in the Gulf of Alaska. We will determine the effectiveness of light sensors for geolocation, the duration of light measurements, and the data sequence design needed for the most efficient and informative transfer of data via satellite pop-up tags from the Gulf of Alaska.

These developments will assist in multiple applications of this new technology in fisheries-independent, habitats assessments for near shore and pelagic marine environments in the Gulf of Alaska. Development of the appropriate technology and an analytical design specific to the Gulf of Alaska will facilitate current and future investigations into the temporal and spatial distribution of key fish species that fall under the jurisdiction of the Trustee Council, such as, king salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), coastal cutthroat trout (O. clarki clarki), Pacific halibut, and ling cod (Ophiodon elongatus) in the Gulf of Alaska.

1. Collect up to 10 halibut from Resurrection Bay and bring them into captivity at the Alaska Sea Life Center (ASLC).
2. Tag 6 halibut with satellite pop-up tags while in captivity.
3. Release 4-6 halibut with satellite pop-up tags back into Resurrection Bay after tag attachment and fish behavior are monitored at ASLC for 2-4 weeks.
4. Tag 2 live halibut from the boat at the time of release and three additional halibut during the spring of 2001..
5. Develop a bathymetric database for Resurrection Bay from existing sources.
6. Literature review on halibut physiology, husbandry, movements and behavior.
7. Install 6 satellite pop-up tags on an oceanographic buoy at the mouth of Resurrection Bay.