Project Information

Title: APEX: Alaska Predator Ecosystem Experiment in PWS and the GOA 98163

Project Year and Number: 1998: 98163

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2002: 02163, 2001: 01163-CLO, 2000: 00163, 1999: 99163, 1997: 97163, 1996: 96163, 1995: 95163, 1994: 94163

Principal Investigator (PI): David Duffy (Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, Northern Gulf of Alaska

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Common Murres, Harbor Seals, Marbled Murrelets, Pacific Herring, Pigeon Guillemot

Abstract: This project uses seabirds as probes of the trophic (foraging) environment of Prince William Sound, comparing their reproductive and foraging biologies, including diet, with similar measurements from Cook Inlet, an area with apparently a more suitable food environment. These measurements are compared with hydroacoustic and net samples of fish to calibrate seabird performance with fish distribution and abundance to determine the extent to which food limits the recovery of seabirds from the spill. Fish are sampled in order to compare diet, energetics and reproductive parameters of the different forage-fish species, to determine whether competitive and predatory interactions or different responses to the environment may favor the abundance of one fish species over another. In FY 98, a new sub-project (/163S-BAA) to study jellyfish is included.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Annual Report FY98: View (24,190 KB)
Final Report: See Project 02163

Publications from this Project: None Available