What's New
NOAA Fisheries and its partners, including the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, released Regional Action Plans (RAPs) on December 16th, to guide implementation of the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy in each region (Northeast, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, Western, Pacific Islands). Ecosystems and Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI) program lead Phyllis Stabeno (PMEL) and Janet Duffy-Anderson (AFSC) were co-authors on the Alaska Regional Report. The Alaska Fisheries Science Center and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory have the scientific infrastructure needed to produce the analyses and deliver benchmarks for the eastern Bering Sea.
This Regional Action Plan identifies key actions to address priority information needs over the next five years to better understand, prepare for and respond to climate changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem. The Regional Action Plan, part of the NOAA Fisheries Climate Science Strategy, focuses on seven science objectives.
Alaska's fisheries are worth $1.8 billion and are vital to local economies and our country's food supply. Alaska is also at the front lines of a changing marine environment. To protect and maintain the region's resources, fishermen, lawmakers and other decision-makers need information to respond to these changes and protect livelihoods and traditional cultures.The Regional Action Plan will help Alaskan communities, commercial and recreational fishermen and others who are dependent on Alaskan marine resources respond and adapt to changes that may be ahead in response to a changing climate and help ensure the sustainability of these marine resources.
Read plan highlights here.
Read the full report in the NOAA Fisheries scientific publication, Technical Memorandum.
Learn about Regional Action Plans from across the country, here.
PMEL in the News
Last month, temperatures in the high Arctic spiked dramatically, some 36 degrees Fahrenheit above normal — a move that corresponded with record low levels of Arctic sea ice during a time of year when this ice is supposed to be expanding during the freezing polar night.
A team of leading geologists, chemists, and biologists aboard research vessel Falkor have just finished surveying the largely unexplored Mariana Back-Arc for life at depths greater than 13,000 feet. Dr. David Butterfield, JISAO, University of Washington, and Dr. William Chadwick, NOAA-PMEL and...
The eruption of land-based volcanoes may be frequent. However, the same with a submarine volcano looks unique. More so about Axial Seamount — the active undersea volcano in the Northeast Pacific. In the latest eruption in April 2015, it triggered an average 200,000 earthquakes 300 miles off the...
Feature Publication
Basin-averaged 1991–2010 warming rates (expressed in W m-2, see colorbar) for the abyssal ocean (4000–6000 m) estimated using data from repeated high-quality, full-depth, coast-to-coast global surveys of ocean water properties. Check marks indicate basins in which warming rates are statistically significantly different from zero
Decadal repeats of high-quality, full-depth, coast-to-coast global surveys of ocean water properties have been revisited since the 1980s. These surveys were completed first under the auspices of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, then CLIVAR/CO2, and now GO-SHIP. The data from these surveys provide global ocean observations below the 2000-meter sampling limit of core Argo floats. Evaluation of deep warming trends below 2000 m using these highly accurate (±0.002°C) survey data yields an... more