Project Information

Title: LTM Program: Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, relative abundance, and body condition in Prince William Sound 21120114-C

Project Year and Number: 2021: 21120114-C

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2023: 23120114-C, 2022: 22120114-C, 2020: 20120114-C, 2019: 19120114-C, 2018: 18120114-C, 2017: 17120114-C, 2016: 16120114-O, 2015: 15120114-O, 2014: 14120114-O, 2013: 13120114-O, 2012: 12120114-O

Principal Investigator (PI): Mayumi Arimitsu (USGS), John Piatt (USGS), Scott Hatch (USGS)

Managing Agency: USGS

Assisting Personnel: None

Project Website: https://gulfwatchalaska.org/monitoring/pelagic-ecosystem/forage-fish-2/

Research Location: Gulf of Alaska

Restoration Category: Monitoring

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring

Abstract:

Identifying drivers of change in forage fish populations is key to understanding recovery potential for piscivorous species injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The goals of the Gulf Watch Alaska (GWA) forage fish monitoring project are to provide information on the population trends of forage species in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) and to better understand how underlying predator-prey interactions influence recovering species and pelagic ecology within Prince William Sound (PWS) and the GOA. Sampling in FY18 indicated predator and prey abundances in PWS were low and forage species such as capelin and sand lance continued a multi-year trend of low occurrence in seabird diets in the GOA. During summer 2019 sampling we encountered spawning capelin and large energy-rich sand lance in PWS, providing the first signals that these forage fish populations may be recovering. Our continued sampling will provide insight into how forage fish populations respond to the persistence of or recovery from the recent Pacific marine heatwave.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic and State/Federal mandates, we were unable to conduct fieldwork in 2020. We propose to redirect FY20 spending that would have occurred for fieldwork to 1) maintenance and update of trawl gear, and 2) funding to support a student or post-doc with training in acoustic data analysis to help accomplish GWA forage fish project goals and synthesis. If approved, these expenditures in FY20 would balance out with no changes to our originally proposed project total budget. Middleton Island work is underway, and sampling will be comparable to previous years. In FY21, we will continue summer aerial survey validation in conjunction with the Herring Research and Monitoring program, summer acoustic-trawl sampling, and the fall integrated predator-prey survey in PWS. We will also conduct seabird diet sampling at Middleton Island during spring/summer (Apr-Aug).


Proposal: View (457 KB)

Reports:
FY17-21 Final Report: View (12,479 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available