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Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations
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FOCI PI Meeting Minutes - 22 April 1999
ATTENDING
Carrie Hadden, Steve Hammond
(via teleconference), Al Hermann, Anne Hollowed, Art Kendall, Pat Livingston,
Allen Macklin, Ron Reed, Bill Rugen (rapporteur)
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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SEBSCC Phase I final reports are due
to the FOCI Coordinator by May 1.
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UV in Alaska: an opportunity for cooperative
monitoring - Betsy Weatherhead contacted FOCI for assistance in siting
ultraviolet (UV) monitors in the Arctic, including subsurface marine installations.
She is interested in deploying new sensors at places and times that are
most useful for studying effects. Art Kendall noted that UV has been
studied with Atlantic cod eggs, and that UV monitoring of the Bering Sea
shelf would be informative, as pollock eggs are found near the surface
there. Phyllis Stabeno would like to invite Betsy to participate
in monitoring activities at site 2 on the Bering Sea shelf. Allen
said that Phyllis Stabeno was interested in deploying a UV meter on a surface
mooring. Art noted that a graduate student working with Bruce Miller
on the affects of UV on lingcod larvae may be able to add some expertise
to such a collaboration. FOCI will prepare a response to Betsy for
J. Balsiger, AFSC Director.
ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT
Pat Livingston reported
on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council Groundfish Plan Teams�
acceptance of her plan to standardize and broaden ecosystem information.
For the past five years or so, general ecosystem information and concerns
have been expressed informally in the Ecosystems Consideration chapter
of the Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports. Pat's
plan, outlined in the memo attached to these minutes,
is to move forward in linking ecosystem information to the management process
and to better track the efficacy of some management actions made with the
intent of protecting ecosystem components. Pat suggested that
FOCI has valuable ecosystem information relating to the physical environment,
living marine resources, forage fish, and ecosystem or community indicators.
A number of products were indicated, including physical oceanographic and
atmospheric time series and indices, phytoplankton and zooplankton abundance
trends, juvenile pollock abundance and trends, and biological modeling
results. Expected system responses to changing climate scenarios,
like those that FOCI and other scientists produced for GLOBEC several years
ago, would also be useful. Allen Macklin and an AFSC designate will
work with Pat and her team to develop products and insure that transfer
of FOCI information is completed by the first week in August of each
year.
FIELD SEASON
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Art Kendall and Bill Rugen reported
on the recently completed cruise 1MF99 to the eastern Bering Sea shelf.
The focus of the cruise was to collect live pollock eggs for experiments
in Seattle and to spawn eggs for use in Seattle and Newport. As part
of this operation, a small-scale bongo grid was conducted to the north
and east of Unimak Pass. The highest concentrations of eggs were
found in the southeastern corner of this grid. The wide range of
egg stages found there show that spawning has occurred over a protracted
time period. This is also where trawling was done to collect spawning adult
pollock. Sampling was also done at and around mooring 2, and
six MOCNESS tows were completed to investigate the vertical distribution
of pollock eggs. Few problems were encountered with the Miller
Freeman following her yard overhaul.
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Anne Hollowed asked about a "flow through"
plankton sampling system like the one used off the west coast last year
by John Hunter to investigate sardine egg distribution. Art said
that as part of the dry dock work on the Miller Freeman, implantation
of a system similar to this was begun. The system would allow sampling
either through an image analysis system where estimates are done based
on particle size or through a direct collection of samples with a net system.
Currently the size and shape of the net collection system is incompatible
with the space available on the Freeman. There will be discussions
with the manufacturer to see if modifications can be made. It was
agreed that this system has great potential.
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The current Miller Freeman cruise
science party is performing mooring, hydrographic and biological work at
mooring sites and the transects between them. Moorings are also being
deployed for the NSF Inner Front study, and sea ice south of Nunivak Island
may cause some of the mooring sites to be moved.
NEXT MEETING
The next FOCI PI meeting
will be held at 10 a.m., May 13, 1999, in the Cloud Chamber (3/2065).
Please submit to Allen Macklin, no later than the day before the meeting,
agenda items and fax-ready copies of figures or handouts that you intend
to present at the next meeting.
CORRECTIONS
Mail corrections and addenda
to the FOCI Coordinator.
RETURN TO Minutes
selection
MEMORANDUM
FOR: |
NPFMC - Groundfish Plan Teams |
FROM: |
F/AKC3 - Pat Livingston |
DATE: |
November 2, 1998 |
SUBJECT: |
Proposed outline for Ecosystems
Consideration Chapter (revised) |
Here are some ideas about expanding
and standardizing some of the content of the Ecosystems Consideration Chapter
to more clearly highlight the status of ecosystem-based management efforts
and the status and trends of various parts of the ecosystem. These
changes and additions would accomplish several goals:
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track ecosystem management efforts and
their efficacy
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track changes in the ecosystem that
are not easily incorporated into single-species assessments
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bring results from ecosystem research
efforts to the attention of stock assessment scientists and fishery managers
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provide a stronger link between ecosystem
research at AFSC (and elsewhere) and fishery management
Attached is an expanded outline of two
main sections that would highlight ecosystem management efforts and ecosystem
status and trends. Some of the proposed time series are not yet readily
available and may take some effort to develop while others will be available
for next year's document. Scientists from Alaska Fisheries Science
Center, North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, Alaska Department of
Fish and Game, U.S. Department of the Interior, and University of Alaska
will be contacted in 1999 and encouraged to provide key time series outlined
on the following two pages and a brief description and interpretation of
the time series data. Hopefully, over the next two to three years
most of the time series shown in the outline will be available and can
be updated easily on an annual basis. The plan teams would still
need to develop their ecosystem concerns and research recommendations based
on this and other information they receive.
I. ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT
INDICES
Purpose: To provide measures
of performance towards meeting the stated ecosystem management goals of
the NPFMC. These goals are to:
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Maintain biodiversity consistent with
natural evolutionary and ecological processes, including dynamic change
and variability.
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Maintain and restore habitats essential
for fish and their prey.
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Maintain system sustainability and sustainable
yields for human consumption and non-extractive uses.
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Maintain the concept that humans are
components of the ecosystem.
Some ecosystem management indices could
be measuring progress in more than one of these goals. Diversity,
in particular, could be considered a broad, overarching goal and the others
are more specific ways of protecting diversity. Subgoals under diversity
could include: protect and restore EFH, protect critical habitat of protected
species, and reduce bycatch. However, given the goals as stated by
NPFMC, here is an initial attempt at organizing some indices by ecosystem
management goal.
A. Maintain diversity
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Time series of bycatch/discard
amounts of prohibited species and non-target species and fish processing
wastes in the EBS, AI, and GOA
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Time series of amount of closed area
and duration of time various species (salmon, herring, snow crab) are protected
from groundfish capture fisheries
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Time series of directed salmon and crab
catch, salmon hatchery production by nation
B. Fish habitat protection
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Time series of the amount of area closed
to bottom trawling in the EBS, AI, and GOA
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Time series of amount of groundfish
fishing effort by gear type in the EBS, AI, and GOA (segregated by inshore,
offshore, and slope regions if possible)
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Time series of state fishery closures
(scallop, crab, salmon)
C. Sustainability (for consumptive
and non-consumptive uses)
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Time series of trophic level of the
catch and total amount of groundfish catch (relative to total exploitable
biomass) by region
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Table summarizing status of managed
groundfish, crab, and salmon species (# stocks below target stock
size, # above target stock size, # unknown). Any success measures of rebuilding
programs?
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Time series of amount of catch of protected
species' prey inside critical habitat (NMFS/REFM)
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Time series of exploitation rates by
specific time/area units for fisheries with time/area quotas
D. Humans are part of ecosystems
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Number and efficacy of limited entry,
license, ITQ systems , changes in fishing power and fleet composition of
groundfish, crab, salmon, scallop fisheries
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Coordination of activities with other
organizations
II. ECOSYSTEM STATUS
INDICATORS
A. Physical environment
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Time series of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Index (PDO)
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Time series of summer surface and bottom
temperatures and the magnitude of the Bering Sea cold pool from AFSC bottom
trawl survey data
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Time series of ice extent index - EBS
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Time series of amount of freshwater
inputs - GOA
B. Habitat
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Indices of pollutant/contaminant levels
in sediments, groundfish, and their prey (need to check availability with
NOAA's National Status and Trends Program)
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Summaries of bottom habitat composition
by region
C. Living Marine Resources
Phytoplankton and zooplankton
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Abundance trends of phytoplankton and
zooplankton in GOA and EBS
Forage Fish
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Abundance trends of capelin in
GOA (Pavlov Bay)
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Forage species (as defined in the forage
fish amendment) abundance trends in EBS
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Forage abundance and diversity
trends inside protected species' critical habitat
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Other forage species' abundance and
trends (herring, juvenile pollock)
Benthic Invertebrates
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Abundance and diversity trends of benthic
macroinvertebrate groups, including crab, captured in NMFS bottom trawl
surveys - EBS
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Epifauna abundance and diversity trends
inside and outside protected areas
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Abundance and diversity trends of benthic
macroinvertebrate groups captured in NMFS bottom trawl surveys GOA
Non-target fish species
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Abundance and diversity trends of non-target
species in the EBS
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Abundance and diversity trends of non-target
species in the GOA and AI
Marine Mammals
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Status and diversity trends of N. fur
seals, Steller sea lions, and harbor seals
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Status and trends of other seals and
cetaceans
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Net debris entanglement indices for
northern fur seals
Seabirds
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Status and diversity trends of seabirds
Ecosystem or community indicators
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Diversity trends of groups sampled by
NMFS bottom trawl surveys
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Trophic level trends of groups sampled
by NMFS bottom trawl surveys
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Size diversity trends of groups sampled
by NMFS bottom trawl surveys