Sampling with bongo nets in Arctic/Chukchi Sea

The Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Program’s overall goal is to improve and reduce uncertainty in stock assessment models of commercially important fish species through the collection of observations of fish and oceanography. Observations for fish include abundance, size, distribution, diet and energetic status. Oceanographic observations include conductivity-temperature at depth, nutrient levels, and estimates of the composition and biomass of phytoplankton and zooplankton (includes jellyfish) species. These fish and oceanographic observations are used to connect climate change and variability in large marine ecosystems to early marine survival of commercially important fish species in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and Arctic.

NOAA places a high priority on research in the Arctic. The North Pacific Ocean is warming and the thickness and extent of the Arctic ice is shrinking. Loss of sea ice is having a profound effect on the distribution, migration, energetics, and survival of commercially important fish species in the Bering Sea/Chukchi Sea. Scientists within the EMA Program partnered with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences to provide a comprehensive assessment of the northeastern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea (NEBS/CS) ecosystems including the physical environment, the primary and secondary producers that support Arctic marine food webs, and the numerous fish species utilizing the area. Research is planned to begin during 2012.

Goals

• Collect baseline fisheries and oceanographic data to enable resource managers to better predict effects of climate and human impacts on ocean productivity and on the ecology of marine and anadromous fish species within the northeastern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea.

• Assess the distribution, relative abundance, diet, energy density, size, and potential predators of juvenile salmon, other commercial fish, and forage fish within the northeastern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea.

• Evaluate the effect of climate change on the health and status of pelagic fishes within the northeastern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea.

Funding for this work comes from the Coastal Impacts Assistance Program (CIAP). Partners include the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the MACE, Genetics, HAMC, and HEPR Programs within AFSC.

Fish sample from the Arctic/Chukchi Sea

Contact:
Lisa Eisner and Jim Murphy
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau AK 99801
(907) 789-6602 and (907) 789-6651
Lisa.Eisner@noaa.gov and Jim.Murphy@noaa.gov