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Project Information

Title: Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, relative abundance, and body condition in Prince William Sound and the Northern Gulf of Alaska 23120114-C

Project Year and Number: 2023: 23120114-C

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2024: 24120114-C, 2022: 22120114-C, 2021: 21120114-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)

Managing Agency: NOAA

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:

In the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) and subsequent crash of Pacific herring in Prince William Sound (PWS), efforts to monitor changes in forage fish have been integral to assessing the recovery of injured resources in the spill-affected region. For example, during the first 10-years of Gulf Watch Alaska (GWA), data from this project documented a heatwave-induced forage fish collapse which resulted in reduced energy flow through the pelagic food web that led to unusual mortality events in birds and mammals and fishery closures in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). The primary goals of the GWA forage fish monitoring project are to: (1) monitor abundance and quality of key forage species, and, (2) better understand how underlying predator-prey interactions influence recovering species and pelagic ecology within PWS and the northern GOA; including top-down and bottom-up regulation of forage fish in the middle trophic level. Proposed work during the FY22-31 funding cycle will include the following objectives: continue (1) fall PWS Integrated Predator Prey (IPP) surveys, (2) spring/summer Middleton Island seabird diet sampling, (3) summer PWS aerial survey validation, and (4) summer/fall forage fish condition indices. We will expand analyses of formerly ancillary samples to provide new indices of juvenile salmon and juvenile walleye pollock. This will include determining hatchery vs. wild proportions and condition (size, energy density) for 10 years of archived plus future samples of juvenile pink and chum salmon collected by seabirds and developing an index of energy content of fall PWS juvenile walleye pollock using samples collected during IPP trawl sampling. Our continued efforts will extend and expand information on forage fish abundance and quality over time, improve our ability to identify drivers of predator-prey interactions, and further document recovery of resources affected by the oil spill and marine heatwaves.

This project was approved for the FY22-FY26 funding cycle.


Proposal: View (2,130 KB)

Reports:
FY23 Annual Report: View (2,415 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available

Resolutions: