Project Information

Title: SEA: Sound Ecosystem Assessment 96320

Project Year and Number: 1996: 96320

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2002: 02320, 2000: 00320-BAA, 1999: 99320-CLO, 1998: 98320, 1997: 97320, 1995: 95320, 1994: 94320

Principal Investigator (PI): Ted Cooney (University of Alaska Fairbanks)

Managing Agency: ADFG

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Prince William Sound

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Pacific Herring, Pink Salmon

Abstract: SEA is a multi-component, interdisciplinary study of factors controlling the production of pink salmon and Pacific herring in PWS. The study investigates the early life stages of these species. Hypotheses about how the physical environment (temperature, salinity, circulation, and water structure) interacts with fish and plankton populations in the region are used to focus and guide the field sampling and modeling studies.


Proposal: Not Available

Reports:
Annual Report FY96: View (19,853 KB)
Final Report: See Project 98320

Publications from this Project: Bernatowicz, J. A.; Schempf, P. F., and Bowman, T. D. Bald eagle productivity in south-central Alaska in 1989 and 1990 after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. in: Rice, S. D.; Spies, R. B.; Wolfe, D. A., and Wright, B. A., eds. Proceedings of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Symposium. Bethesda, MD: American Fisheries Society; 1996; pp. 785-797.

Datasets:
EVOSTC Data Archive: The Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) project seeks ecosystem level description of the physical and biologic processes in Prince William Sound which regulate the survival of juvenile pink salmon and Pacific herring. The data collected by SEA include measurements of the oceanography and marine populations in Prince William Sound and the adjacent Gulf of Alaska. The scale of the data collection includes broad scale measurements across Prince William Sound as well as smaller scale measurements taken near shore at multiple sites in the Sound. In order to understand the interaction within the ecosystem of the Sound, data are being collected from multiple trophic levels. Subprojects are responsible for the collection and initial analysis of these data. As a whole, however, the SEA project is analyzing these data together, in an integrated fashion, and developing models which describe key aspects of the Prince William Sound ecosystem. The resulting scientific archive will include the collection of datasets and the results of the integrated modeling effort. Reports, Graphics, Database tables and ASCII files. Availability: Most of the datasets will be added to a joint SEA database after they are processed and analyzed by the sub-projects of SEA. The database will then be used as a collaborative resource for the SEA projects and models. Initial data products include cruise reports and sampling stations. More extensive capabilities including data search and retrieval will be available with the public release which is scheduled to begin in 1999.