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

Featured Research, Publications, Posters, Reports, and Activities

• Effects of a single event of close interbreeding on growth and survival in steelhead.
  THROWER, F. P., and J. J. HARD. 2009. Effects of a single event of close interbreeding on growth and survival in steelhead. Conserv. Genet. 10:299-1307. 
   
• A top-down survival mechanism during early marine residency explains year-class strength of coho salmon in Southeast Alaska.
  LaCROIX, J. J., A. C. WERTHEIMER, J. A. ORSI, M. V. STURDEVANT, E. A. FERGUSSON, and N. BOND. 2009. A top-down survival mechanism during early marine residency explains year-class strength of coho salmon in Southeast Alaska. Deep Sea Res. II 56:2560-2569. 
   
• The 2010 SE Pink Salmon Forecast from the Southeast Coastal Monitoring (SECM) Research Project
  By:  JOE ORSI, MOLLY STURDEVANT, EMILY FERGUSSON, ALEX WERTHEIMER
  Conference:  Southeast Alaska Purse Seine Task Force Meeting, Ketchikan, AK, Dec 2009
  (2009 poster, .pdf, 2.24MB)   Online.
   
• SECM Insights into Zooplankton Dynamics in the Northern Region of Southeast Alaska
  By:  M. STURDEVANT, E. FERGUSSON, J. ORSI, W. PARK, B. WING, A. WERTHEIMER
  Conference:  Salmon Ocean Ecology 11th Annual Meeting, Juneau, AK, Apr 2009
  (2009 poster, .pdf, 291KB)   Online.
   
• Insights From a 12-Year Biophysical Time Series of Juvenile Pacific Salmon in Southeast Alaska: the Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring Project (SECM)
  
  
• Multiple Paternity Detected in Quillback Rockfish
  
  
• Facility Upgrades and Repairs at Little Port Walter Marine Station
  
  
• Little Port Walter Marine Station Seventy-fifth Anniversary Event
  
  
• Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project Outreach Yields Mutual Benefit
  
  

See the publications and poster databases for additional listings.