Marine Salmon Interactions (MSI) Program

Little Port Walter Field Station.

Spawning sockeye salmon.

Shipboard scientist processing plankton samples.

The Marine Salmon Interactions (MSI) Program conducts research on marine ecology of juvenile salmon, on stock assessment and enhancement of salmonids and on other fishes in Southeast Alaska and other parts of North Pacific Ocean marine ecosystems. Studies focus on stewardship and management of salmon as keystone indicator species regarding ecosystem fluctuations in support of NOAA Fisheries goals and international obligations including Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST), North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC), and Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (GLOBEC).

Marine ecology of juvenile salmon studies examine long-term temporal and spatial migration patterns, habitat uses, food utilization and prey resources of juvenile salmon and associated fishes as they transit from near shore spawning habitats through major migration corridors into coastal and open ocean waters. A key component of theses studies is the Southeast Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project that collects CPUE abundance data from trawling and detailed seasonal changes in biophysical and oceanographic parameters at 21 stations on 4 to 5 research cruises annually. Much of the analyses for this research is done in the Fish, Energy, Diet and Zooplankton (FEDZ) Laboratory.

Stock assessment and enhancement studies focus on understanding and modeling interactions between wild and hatchery stocks of salmon and steelhead, including genetic relationships, population dynamics, forecasting run strength for some species, and use of coded wire tags to document fishery contributions, migration patterns, and interceptions of endangered stocks. Steelhead studies focus on ESA recovery approaches for listed stocks. Other studies seek to evaluate habitat preference of juvenile rockfish and their responses to disturbed seafloors from groundfish fisheries.

MSI also manages the Little Port Walter (LPW) Marine Station on Baranof Island and Auke Creek Station near Juneau. Both of these facilities provide NOAA Fisheries with long-term data sets of different kinds of observations that play a critical role in helping understand how climate change impacts fisheries and other marine resources.

MSI Program Manager:
Bill Heard
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau, AK 99801
(907) 789–6003
Bill.Heard@noaa.gov

News and Research Highlights

		11th Annual Salmon Ocean Ecology Meeting The 11th Annual Salmon Ocean Ecology Meeting is scheduled to be held in Juneau, Alaska on 7-8 April 2009. The purpose of this meeting is to foster communication and collaboration among researchers working on the ecology of Pacific salmon off the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. More>

Featured Research, Publications, Posters, Reports, and Activities

• Variable effects of biological and environmental processes on coho salmon marine survival in Southeast Alaska.
  MALICK, M. J., M. D. ADKINSON, and A. C. WERTHEIMER. 2009. Variable effects of biological and environmental processes on coho salmon marine survival in Southeast Alaska. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 138:846-860. 
   
• Sablefish predation on juvenile Pacific salmon in the coastal marine waters of Southeast Alaska in 1999.
  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. 
   
• Sablefish Predation on Juvenile Salmon in the Coastal Marine Waters of Southeast Alaska in 1999
  By:  M. V. STURDEVANT, M. F. SIGLER, J. A. ORSI
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2009
  (2009 poster, .pdf, 196KB)   Online.
   
• Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring [2009]
  By:  E. A. FERGUSSON, J. A. ORSI, M. V. STURDEVANT, B. L. WING, A. C. WERTHEIMER, W. R. HEARD
  Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2009
  (2009 poster, .pdf, 1.47MB)   Online.
   

See the publications and poster databases for additional listings.