Manned submersible Delta.

Adult sablefish.

The Auke Bay Laboratories’ Marine Ecology and Stock Assessment (MESA) Program is at the center of ABL's two key functions; stock assessment and habitat assessment. MESA supports the NMFS mission and especially NOAA’s Mission Goal: Protect, Restore, and Manage the use of Coastal and Ocean Resources Through an Ecosystem Approach to Management. In addition, MESA research supports the first objective under NOAA’s Climate Goal: Understand and predict the consequences of climate variability and change on marine ecosystems. Primary MESA program functions are:

Stock assessment: Provides information needed by NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) to manage the Alaska groundfish resource. Scientists use advanced population modeling techniques to integrate biological observations and theoretical considerations into stock assessments that recommend annual groundfish quotas. These are in turn used by the NPFMC to manage fisheries within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Alaska. Active research to improve management recommendations includes the use of oceanographic, energetic, and satellite data to improve recruitment predictions, genetic stock structure of rockfish, and early life history studies on sablefish, pollock, sharks, rockfish, and salmon.

Northern rockfish in Aleutian corals.

Scientist at work.

Surveys and field studies: Includes the annual longline survey, the Bering Arctic Subarctic Integrated Survey (BASIS), and a wide variety of special at-sea studies. The Alaska longline survey assesses groundfish on the continental slope of Alaska. Stock status information is collected for a number of important groundfish species, particularly sablefish, rockfish, and grenadiers. Special projects and extensive tagging of sablefish, thornyhead rockfish, Greenland turbot, and lingcod are integral functions of the survey. The extensive tagging program on the longline survey has provided a wealth of life history information, including migration and exploitation rate estimates, and diel movement patterns. Collaborations with marine mammal scientists are focusing on fishery interactions with marine mammals, such as sperm whale longline depredation of sablefish. The Bering Arctic Subarctic Integrated Survey (BASIS) is an epi-pelagic trawl survey of the Bering Sea with expansions to the Chukchi Sea, most recently in 2007. A suite of survey objectives includes providing biological indices of abundance, distribution, diet, and fitness of salmon and age-0 pollock and Pacific cod; sampling of ocean processes and plankton; and examining the impacts of climate change on fishery resources.

Marine ecology research: Focuses on pelagic, benthic, and estuarine fish habitat; deep sea corals/sponges; and commercial and forage species, to improve stock assessment parameters and to protect and define essential fish habitat (EFH). Through the use of manned submersibles and towed cameras, MESA scientists have identified habitat associations of fish species, discovered extensive coral gardens in the Aleutian Islands, and provided insights into the catchability of trawl gear for groundfish species.High resolution multibeam sonar data have been processed to generate benthic habitat maps of fishing grounds in the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian distribution of cold water coral habitat. Analysis of near-shore and estuarine EFH provides information on juvenile groundfish and salmon. Future studies will contrast regions of the Gulf of Alaska and characterize a critical environmental window that fish must pass through during their first year of life as they cross from offshore spawning to nearshore settlement areas.

MESA Program Manager:
Phillip Rigby
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau, AK 99801
(907) 789–6653
Phillip.Rigby@noaa.gov

Featured Research, Publications, Posters, Reports, and Activities

• CROSS, A. D., D. A. BEAUCHAMP, J. H. MOSS, and K. W. MYERS. 2009. Interannual variability in early marine growth, size-selective mortality, and marine survival for Prince William Sound pink salmon. Mar. Coastal Fish. 1:57-70. 
   
• STURDEVANT, M. V., M. F. SIGLER, and J. A. ORSI. 2009. Sablefish predation on juvenile Pacific salmon in the coastal marine waters of Southeast Alaska in 1999. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 138:675-691. 
   
• Lynn Canal Pacific Herring: a Member of One Big Meta-population
  By:  S. WILDES, J. J. VOLLENWEIDER, J. GUYON
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2009
  (2009 poster, .pdf, 223KB)   Online.
   
• Age and Growth of Three Bamboo Coral Species from the Northeastern Pacific Ocean
  By:  ALLEN H. ANDREWS, ROBERT P. STONE, CRAIG C. LUNDSTROM, ANDREW P. DeVOGELAERE
  Conference:  Deepsea Coral Symposium 2008, Wellington, New Zealand, Dec 2008
  (2008 poster, .pdf, 250KB)   Online.
   
• Tag Retention and Effects of Tagging on Movement of the Giant Red Sea Cucumber
  
  
• Southeast Alaska: Oceanographic Habitats and Linkages
  
  
• The Potential Role of Water-column Stability and Nutrients in Structuring the Zooplankton Community
  
  
• Stock-Structured Distribution of Western Alaska Juvenile Chinook Salmon From United States BASIS Surveys, 2002-07
  
  
• BASIS Symposium Held in Seattle
  
  
• Spatial Distribution, Energetic Status, and Food Habits of Eastern Bering Sea Age-0 Walleye Pollock
  
  

See the publications and poster databases for additional listings.