National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce

New Story Map Highlights the Importance of NOAA Long-term Observations in the Bering Sea

Yellow circular buoy with black words "Peggy" with a tower on top sitting in ocean with sea gulls flying above

Peggy is a biophysical mooring nicknamed after Peggy Dyson being deployed in the Bering Sea. The biophysical mooring site 2 (M2) is one of the longest running time series of its kind providing near-continuous measurements since 1995 in the southeastern Bering Sea.

December 05, 2022

The Pivotal Recovery Story Map (ESRI) recounts the events in 2021 of how NOAA scientists raced against nature to save their most valuable scientific instruments in the Bering Sea. This interactive online map highlights the recovery efforts, the unique data collected and the implications it has for management. 

In the fall of 2021, a combination of sea ice, hurricane-force winds, and a pandemic set the stage for what would become a momentous recovery effort for scientific moorings in the southeastern Bering Sea. These scientific moorings provide an overview of changing ocean conditions as part of a 30 year time series. Scientists deploy these moorings on an annual basis to ensure continuous measurements during ice and ice-free seasons. 

NOAA scientists are at the forefront of detecting regional and global climate change and its impacts on Alaska’s marine ecosystems. With a generation of ocean observing, NOAA EcoFOCI, or the Ecosystems and Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations Program, continues to study and share how oceanographic and biological changes affect marine ecosystems such as the Cold Pool and impact of sea ice loss. 

This Story Map was developed by Lindsey Neuwirth, a 2022 NOAA College Supported Intern at Stony Brook University. 

To view the story map, please see this version on the ESRI website"Pivotal Recovery for Science''.  Note that most story maps are large, single-page multimedia presentations. When using a mobile device, we recommend viewing over WiFi.