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 fisheries and oceanographic indices.  Indices for fish include abundance, size, distribution, diet, and energetic status. Oceanographic indices include conductivity-temperature at depth, nutrient levels, estimates of the composition and biomass of phytoplankton and zooplankton (includes jellyfish) species.  These fisheries and oceanographic indices 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 (GOA), Bering Sea, and Arctic.

Research conducted by EMA's Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project focuses on habitat and ecology of juvenile salmon in waters adjacent to the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem. (Watch the streaming "What we do!" video below.) This Auke Bay Laboratories project addresses key objectives of the NOAA Fisheries Strategic Plan and international science programs including the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) and the North Pacific Research Board (Gulf of Alaska Integrated Ecosystem Project).

Primary SECM goals are to:

• Understand the early marine ecology and habitat utilization of juvenile salmon and associated species
• Build time series of oceanographic and ecological indices for the coastal waters of Southeast Alaska
• Identify factors affecting salmon survival (e.g., climate change, prey, abundance, and predators)
• Produce data sets to evaluate hatchery and wild stock interactions, and forecast regional adult salmon returns

Sea surface temperature anomalies from an El Niño event are shown here to affect the eastern GOA in 1997

SECM research was initiated in the spring of 1997, just prior to the onset of a strong El Niño event, and has continued annually. SECM sampling occurs around Icy Strait (58°N, 136°W) in the northern region. Historically, some sampling has also occurred in Clarence Strait (55°N and 132°W) in the southern region (2005-07 and 2009). These localities are principal migration corridors for salmon that transit dynamic tidal and oceanographic features to offshore waters as juveniles and return in subsequent years as adults.

Primary migration corridors studied in the marine waters of the northern and southern regions of Southeast Alaska

SECM researchers have compiled a multi-year time series of biophysical data associated with juvenile salmon culled from monthly sampling intervals in May, June, July, and August. Juvenile salmon and ecologically-related species are sampled with a surface trawl and associated oceanographic measurements are taken. This time series includes data on:

• Temperature and salinity profiles
• Surface nutrients and chlorophyll
• Zooplankton (upper 20-m and integrated)
• Size, abundance, and origin of salmon
• Potential predators of juvenile salmon

Some of these biophysical data are being used to forecast pink salmon returns to Southeast Alaska and to evaluate recent trends in commercial salmon harvest and ocean survival within the region. These analyses also explore the impact of large-scale, climate-driven processes on salmon year-class strength.

Contacts:
Joe Orsi, Molly Sturdevant, Emily Fergusson
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau AK 99801
(907) 789-6034
Joe.Orsi@noaa.gov

Selected Publications, Posters, and Reports

SECM annual reports (NPAFC documents):
2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997

SECM selected presentations:
2012 Chinook Seminar & Symposium
2012 SECM 15-Year Milestone Poster
2012 Salmon Ocean Ecology Meeting
2011 NPAFC Presentation
2011 Otolith Workshop
2011 AK Marine Science Symposium

SECM selected publications:
Fish Predator Diet and Climate 2012
Coho/Chinook early marine ecology 2011
Chum salmon starvation study 2010
Sablefish predation on salmon 2009
Pink salmon forecasting 2009
Trawl vessel intercalibration 2008
Coast wide epipelagic fish assoc. 2007
Chum salmon bioenergetics 2004
Inter annual copepod abundance 2004
Surface trawl catch comparisons 2004
Juvenile salmon ecology 2000
Coastal sampling methodology 1999

For addition publications visit the AFSC Publications Database