Project Information

Title: HRM Program: Intensive surveys of juvenile herring 15120111-G

Project Year and Number: 2015: 15120111-G

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2014: 14120111-G, 2013: 13120111-G, 2012: 12120111-G

Principal Investigator (PI): Michele Buckhorn

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

Project Website: https://pwssc.org/juvenile-herring-abundance-in-prince-william-sound/

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Monitoring

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring

Abstract:

Hydroacoustic surveys of juvenile herring nursery areas in Prince William Sound have been conducted during fall and late-winter for the last several years. The number of locations surveyed have varied from 5-9, including the 4 Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) bays. However, each seasonal effort has conducted only a single night survey in each of these locations. Thorne (2010) examined seasonal changes from fall 2006 to spring 2009. He showed that apparent overwinter mortality of age 0 herring appeared to be greatest in Simpson Bay and least in Whale Bay. However, the differences in seasonal abundance could be attributed to mortality, emigration, or changes in ambient light. We propose to address these uncertainties with an intensive fall and late winter/spring intensive survey. The fall series started mid-October 2013 and extend to the first week of December. The late winter/spring series began in February 2014, and extended into the 2nd week of April. Sampling was conducted in Simpson and Windy Bays. Fish were collected using a mid-water trawl. And the survey design followed the historic zig zag transects run by Thorne since 1993 in order to remain consistent with that sampling design and to put the long term fall and spring surveys into context.


Proposal: View (28 KB)

Reports:
Final Report: View (456 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available