Project Information

Title: Are Herring Energetics Limiting. Part III. Disease Challenges (Close-out) 10100806

Project Year and Number: 2010: 10100806

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2009: 090806, 2008: 080806, 2007: 070806

Principal Investigator (PI): JJ Vollenweider (NOAA/NMFS Auke Bay Laboratory)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: Ron Heintz, Paul Hershberger, Jeep Rice

Research Location: NOAA Fisheries, Auke Bay Laboratories, Juneau Alaska (Chemical analysis of samples)

Restoration Category: Damage Assessment

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring

Abstract: Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) in PWS have not rebounded following the population crash in 1993. We propose to determine if energy availability is limiting production of PWS herring. We made field collections of Pacific herring over the course of 3 winters to examine two energetic mechanisms that could potentially inhibit herring recruitment in PWS: 1) overwinter mortality of juveniles, and 2) low reproductive energy investments by adults. These processes were compared among thriving (Sitka Sound) and depressed (Lynn Canal) herring stocks to evaluate PWS collections. Field observations were supplemented with laboratory trials in year 2 to measure how metabolic rates and other bioenergetic parameters vary with temperature, thus calibrating the field observations from various habitats. Initial results indicate that PWS herring lose energy at a higher rate over winter than populations in southeast Alaska. High rates of energy utilization may be a factor of increasing predation rates (project 080804) or elevated prevalence of disease (project 080819). In year 3, laboratory trials with disease challenges are underway at Marrowstone Marine Field Station, which will determine if exposure to Ichthyophonus increases metabolic costs and if fish in poor nutritional condition are more susceptible to Ichthyophonus. Together, these data sets will illustrate how potential energetic bottlenecks may be limiting PWS herring and how disease impacts energy costs. In this proposal, we request funding for a 4th year (FY10) to close-out the herring energetics project. With the exception of the laboratory component of the project, all other aspects of the project are on schedule. During the first lab trial, we encountered mortality rates higher than anticipated and subsequently reran the trial, setting us behind schedule by several months. We expect the laboratory trials to be complete by the end of September, in which case chemical analysis of the laboratory-collected samples will roll-over into FY10. The requested FY10 funding is to pay for the chemical analysis of those samples, for completion of analysis, writing reports and manuscripts, and for travel to present the integrated results of this 3-year study.


Proposal: View (165 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY10: View (21 KB)
Final Report: Not available. For current status, please contact us.

Publications from this Project: None Available