FIT Research Projects: Beaufort Sea Survey
The Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Status of Stocks and Multispecies Assessment (SSMA) Program's
Fishery Interaction Team (FIT) is conducting a fish survey in the marine offshore waters
of the Beaufort Sea (155°W to 152°W) (Map of Survey Area - PDF) in August 2008. Three major institutions
conducting marine research in Alaska are collaborating on this study: Alaska Fisheries Science Center;
Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks; and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences,
University of Washington. The Minerals Management Service is funding this study. The distribution and abundance
of fish will be assessed by bottom trawl and acoustic surveys. The distribution of zooplankton will be sampled
with bongo nets and oceanographic properties will be measured with conductivity-temperature-depth probes (CTD).
NOAA Photo Library - Poling Ice Floes in the Beaufort Sea
The F/V Ocean Explorer has been chartered to conduct the survey, leaving Dutch Harbor on July 30th and returning on August 30th.
Bottom trawl survey
The distribution and abundance of adult and juvenile demersal fish and their dominant benthic invertebrate prey in offshore habitats (20 m to the shelf break) will be assessed with an 83-112 eastern otter trawl, the standard for AFSC bottom trawl surveys of the Bering Sea shelf.
Acoustic survey
The distribution and abundance of pelagic fish will be assessed using acoustic methods but limited to times and areas that will not conflict with subsistence whaling operations. Adult and juvenile fish will be surveyed with echo integration trawl (EIT) survey methods similar to those used during other routine AFSC acoustic surveys.
Oceanography and zooplankton
Concurrent physical, chemical and biological data will be collected to assess water column properties and the food fields upon which the fish depend. Plankton tows completed in conjunction with CTD measurements will collect the samples needed to quantify the species composition, abundance and biomass of the zooplankton available to the fish.
Marine Mammals and Seabirds
Observations of marine mammals and seabirds will be made in transit to/from Dutch Harbor, Alaska to the survey area in the Beaufort Sea. Opportunistic marine mammal observations will be recorded when a sighting occurs and formal transect observations for seabirds will be done on a daily basis.
Press Release
http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/newsreleases/2008/beaufort072308.htm
Alaska Public Radio Network's report
http://aprn.org/2008/09/03/beaufort-sea-survey-finding-fish-moving-north-to-arctic-waters/
Contact
For more details, contact Libby.Logerwell@noaa.gov at 206-526-4231 or Kimberly.Rand@noaa.gov at 206-526-6303. Check site for updated details and a full trip report with photos upon return!
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