The Eighth Annual Meeting of PICES

Transcription

1 SCHOOL OF FISHERIES AND OCEAN SCIENCES Institute of Marine Science Marine Advisory Program Fishery Industrial Technology Center Coastal Marine Institute Alaska Sea Grant College Program North Pacific Marine Research Program Vol. 2 Issue 8 December 1999 Fisheries Division 17th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium Global Undersea Research Unit Eighth Annual Meeting of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) The Eighth Annual Meeting of PICES was held at the Hyundai Hotel in Vladivostok, Russia, October Dean Vera Alexander served as head of the U. S. delegation. The opening ceremony was held at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, October 11, 1999, following three days of workshops, task team implementation, committee and working group meetings. Dean Alexander served as head of the U. S. delegation. The welcome on behalf of Russia was offered by Vice-Governor Vladimir A. Stegni, standing in for Evgeni Nazdratenko, Governor of Pre Morye. Following short presentations from a representative of the Russian State Committee of Fisheries and representatives of the national delegations, the Chairman of the PICES Science Board, Dr. Pat Livingston, presented an overview of PICES scientific accomplishments. Dr. Vyacheslav P. Shuntov delivered the keynote lecture, entitled "Review of Research into Macroecosystems of the Far Eastern Seas: Results, Objectives, Doubts." The scientific sessions during the week were excellent and well-attended. In that regard, the total attendance at the meeting was high. The highlight was a full-day symposium on "The Nature and Impacts of North Pacific Climate Regime Shifts," orga- The room was packed with representatives from more than a dozen countries when Dr. Paul Reichardt, Provost for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, opened the 17th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium. For the next three days, the participants and attendees would Research Assistant, Sherri Dressel, addresses a question after her presentation Using Habitat to Increase Precision in Analyses of Multispecies Trawl Surveys. nized by the Science Board. Russian hosts did an excellent job in supporting the PICES Secretariat, and in providing stimulating after-hours activities for the delegations and registrants. Attendees from SFOS beside Dr. Alexander were Drs. A. J. Paul, Dave Musgrave, Bill Smoker, Professor Emeritus Tom Royer, and Judy McDonald of the Seward Marine Center. be immersed in Spacial Processes and Management of Fish Populations, the focus of the 17th Annual Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium which was held on October Spatial processes how animals use habitat, and interact among themselves and other species can make population assessment more realistic. It also benefits both the users and managers of our natural resources. Fishermen get a better idea of where their target species are located and the nature of the habitat they will be fishing in. This can be used to reduce operating costs and increase overall catch per vessel. Resource managers benefit from the increased accuracy of the data and thus are better able See Wakefield, Page 3 In This Issue PICES Meeting... 1 Lowell Wakefield Update... 1 Funding... 2 Faculty Travel Awards... 2 Seminars... 2 Knowlton and Terschak... 2 Doyle Memorial Browning Wins Award... 3 Publications... 3 Announcements... 4 In the News... 5 Student Trip to Kodiak... 5 Academic Services Staffing... 5 Reminder Binder... 5 SFOS Tid-Bits... 6 People Moves... 6 Sea Grant... 6 More Wakefield pictures on Page 6 Page 1 SFOS News

2 Funding -- November 1999 PI(s) Project Title & Agency Funded Amount Adkison & Quinn Design of Alaska Harbor Seal Survey - State of Alaska, Division of Wildlife $ 20,609 Conservation Alexander NPMR Information Transfer - NPMR $ 120,000 Button Dynamic Properties of Picoplankton Over the Annual Cycle in Near-Polar Lakes - $ 346,374 National Science Foundation Gharrett Discrimination of Rockfish mtdna - NOAA NMFS $ 6,500 Quakenbush Breeding Biology of Steller's Eider - North Slope Borough $ 12,449 Quakenbush Breeding Biology of Steller's Eider - USFWS $ 11,857 Stekoll & Smoker Effects of Total Dissolved Solids on Salmonids - North Coast Inc./ASTF $ 342,917 Whitledge What are the Sources of Dissolved Carbon and Nutrient Signals Within the Arctic Basins, as Sampled by Submarine? SCICEX - University of South Carolina/NSF $ 70,003 Mate (OSU) Foraging Habitats and Migration Routes of the North Pacific right whale in the Bering Sea - NPMR $ 70,000 Total Funded New Projects for November 1999 $ 1,000,709 Faculty Conference Travel Funds Awarded Name Conference Place Dates Button, Don American Society for Microbiology Meeting* TBA May 2000 Castellini, Michael Experimental Biology Meeting and Symposium at Scripps San Diego, CA April 2000 Crapo, Chuck Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists Dallas, TX June 10-14, 2000 Finney, Bruce AGU Fall Meeting and GLOBEC PI Meeting San Francisco, CA Dec , 2000 Himelbloom, Brian Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists Dallas, TX June 10-14, 2000 Musgrave, David Ocean Sciences Meeting San Antonio, TX Jan , 2000 Paul, A. J. National Shellfisheries Association Annual Meeting Seattle, WA March 18-24, 2000 Smoker, William World Aquaculture Society Annual Meeting Nice, France May 2-6, 2000 * This is the American Society for Microbiology s 100th Meeting Seminars December 07 Noon-214 O Neill Bldg. Dr. Rolf Gradinger (Institut für Polarökologie,Christian-Albrechts- Universität Kiel, Germany): Coupled Ecosystems in the Icecovered Arctic Ocean. December 08 3:30 p.m. Elvey Bldg. Dr. Rolf Gradinger: Structure and Dynamics of Ice Algal Communities in the Transpolar Drift System Unless otherwise noted, all seminars will be held in the Elvey Auditorium, Elvey Building (Geophysical Institute). For more information and the most upto-date list for seminars, visit and select Seminars under Handy Links, or call Dr. Dave Musgrave at Page 2 SFOS News Ann Knowlton and John Terschak help fifth graders learn marine science Graduate students Ann Knowlton and John Terschak (Graduate Program in Marine Sciences and Limnology) were on hand when Nancy Sopp s fifth grade class at Pearl Creek Elementary in Fairbanks explored the insides of squid as part of their studies on the ocean environment. I really enjoy working with elementary students, said Knowlton. Most have an amazing enthusiasm for learning, even if they initially thing it is gross. By the end of the squid dissection, most of the kids wearing plastic gloves had removed them and were eagerly exploring the insides of their squid. Even after the controlled chaos of a fifth grade class learning dissection, Kowlton feels that every student came away with a better understanding of science and a greater appreciation of the variety of life around them. (If you have any experiences like those of Knowlton and Terschak, pass them along. Photographs of your experiences would be a great addition.) Jacqueline R. Doyle LaPerriere Jacqueline R. Doyle LaPerriere, Joint (SFOS/IAB/AKCFWRU) Associate Professor of Fisheries, passed away last month. Jackie worked for the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geologic Survey at UAF and as an associate professor of biology and wildlife, fisheries and water resources.

3 Browning wins award Amy Browning, a student in the Graduate Program in Marine Sci-ences and Limnology (GPMSL), won The Best Student Presentation Award at the Alaska Fisheries Society meeting held in Kodiak last month. Her PowerPoint presentation, Legal Kodiak Harbor Framework for Marine Protected Areas, looked at the Federal and State policies and laws governing marine protected environments in Alaska - what works and what doesn t. The presentation was adapted from a similar talk she gave a week earlier at the 17th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium in Anchorage which covered the same Wakefield to monitor the status of the resource, set more realistic seasonal catch limits and ensure the long-term viability of the resource. It was interesting to note that two of Thursday s presentations, one predicting changes in the snow crab fishery and the other dicussing reduced biomass in the salmon harvest, were supported by reports in the Anchorage Daily News and the Alaska Fisherman s Journal. Jie Zheng, from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Commercial Fisheries, discussed problems with snow crabs in the Eastern Bering Sea. Snow crabs are the largest and most valuable invertebrate fishery in Alaska. Although snow crabs have a four-toseven year cycle, said Zheng, research has shown that this year up to 70 percent of the crabs appear to be gone from the main fishing grounds causing an 80 percent drop in harvest quota. The problem, according to Zheng, may be related more to the dramatic ecological changes that have taken place in the region subject matter, but on a national scale. This is actually the first chapter of my overall thesis project, said Amy who plans on continuing in the environmental policy-making field. Browning, whose past experiences include working as a photographer for The Battalion, Texas A&M s weekly college newspaper, is excited about the challenge of working in a field that requires integration of all the different aspects of ecosystem management. Those aspects include integrating socioeconomic issues, ecosystem/science issues, resource use, jurisdictional issues and nongovernmental organization involvement with education and public awareness. since the late 1970s than overfishing. The crabs, he said, may just have moved to cooler waters. The nursery systems for salmon may ultimately determine the biomass of the harvest, said Dr. Ole Mathisen during his presentation Spacial Segregation of Ocean Feeding Kvichak Sockeye Salmon. Although a record number of fish were harvested this year, the overall biomass was down. In the case of the Kvichak River, the nursery may be overloaded, says Mathisen. The result is smaller fish going Dr. Ole Mathisen spoke of the contradiction between the increased number of adult Kvichak River Sockeye salmon returning to the spawn and the reduced biomass of the record catch. to sea in the first place. He found that during the peak years, returning Kvichak sockeye were typically one or more kilograms smaller than fish during non-peak years. This resulted in an estimated 60 metric tons in the biomass of the catch as a whole. Thus, increased escapement may not necessarily equate to more salmon available to consumers. As these two examples show, resource management no longer means just counting fish. Other presenters gave exciting reports See Wakefield, Page 6 Publications Springer, A; Piatt, J; Shuntov, V; Van Vliet, G; Vladimirov, V; Kuzin, A; Perlov, A Marine birds and mammals of the Pacific Subarctic Gyres. Prog. Oceanogr. 43, Crapo, C; Himelbloom, B Spoilage and Histamine in Whole Pacific Herring (Clupea Harengus Pallasi) and Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus Gorbuscha) Fillets. J. Food Safe. 19, Choudhury, G and A. Guatam Comparative study of mixing elements during twin-screw extrusion of rice flour. Food Res. Intern. 31(1), Kienle, J; Kowalik, Z; Troshina, E Angular momentum integrals for Arctic Ocean Tides. Sci Tsunami Hazards. 14(3) Kowalik, Z Tidal currents in the Bering Sea: shelf-deep basin exchange. Memoirs of the Faculty of Fisheries, Hokkaido University, 45, no. 1, Button, D. and B. Robertson Effect of nutrient kinetics and cytoarchitecture on bacterioplankton size. Limnology and Oceanography, V45(1). In Process. Elsner, R; qyasfter, S; Almaas R; Saugstad, O Diving seals ischemia-reperfusion, and oxygen radicals. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A. 199: Elsner, R. and I.S. de la Lande Heterogeneous cholinergic reactions of ringed seal coronary arteries. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A. 119: Ostholm, T. and R. Elsner Regulation of coronary blood flow in ringed seals: The histochemical evidence. Mar. Mammal Sci. 15: Elsner, R Living in Water: Solutions to Physiological Problems. In: J.E. Reynolds III and S.A. Rommel (eds.), Biology of Marine Mammals. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press. pp Elsner, R A comparative physiologist s view of human and marine mammal diving. In: K.B. Pahdolf, N. Takeda and P.K. Singal (eds.), Adaptation Biology and Medicine, Vol. 2: Molecular Basis. New Delhi, Narosa Publishing House. pp Elsner, R The CO connection. Windswept Quart. Mt. Washington Observatory. 40(3):52-53,74. Page 3 SFOS News

4 Announcements Global Change Student Research Grant Competition The deadline for this competition is January 21, Information and application packets for the FY2000/ 2001 Global Change Student Research Grant Competition are now available from Barb Severin, Center for Global Change & Arctic System Research, Room 306, International Arctic Research Center ( ), or you can get them via their web site at: / School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS) Student Travel Grants SFOS will support travel for up to 10 graduate student travel to participate in scientific meetings; however, this depends on the proportion of in-state and out-of-state requests, and the number may actually be higher. We now have six awards available for the Spring/Summer 2000 semesters. The criteria are: The amount awarded will be $700 for out-of-state travel and $300 for in-state travel. An oral or poster session paper must be presented. An abstract should be submitted with the request, or as soon after the request as possible. The Dean s Office should be copied on notifications of acceptance of the paper. Preference will be given to students who are planning to present their thesis work. Send proposals to Roberta Miller by December 15 for travel during the Spring/Summer semester (through August 31, 2000). Each proposal must include: 1. A letter of request which describes the benefits of attendance at the particular conference. 2. A letter of endorsement by the student s major professor. 3. A tentative budget for the travel. 4. A copy of the abstract submitted. 5. Specify the following: if you are an M.S. or Ph.D. student; if you are in your last year as a student; if you are presenting a paper or a poster. Page 4 SFOS News December 15 Deadline for National Science Foundation (NSF) Programs The following NSF programs have a December 15, 1999 proposal dead line. Environmental Biology: Ecological Studies--Supports research on natural and managed ecological systems, primarily in terrestrial, wetland, and freshwater habitats. Environmental Biology: Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology--Supports smaller studies that focus on evolutionary or ecological phenomena and that require long-term investigation. Environmental Biology: Systematic and Population Biology--Supports research on patterns and causes of diversity within and among populations and species. Refer to the following Web page for details: Sea Grant Requests Proposal for Fellowships in Population Dynamics and Resource Economics National Sea Grant Program and the National Marine Fisheries Service are accepting applications for two new Graduate Fellowship Programs, one in Population Dynamics and one in Marine Resource Economics. Applications must be submitted through the Alaska Sea Grant College Program by February 15, Refer to the following Web page for more details: Availability of Vostok Ice Core and Accretion Ice and Other Deaccessed Ice Cores The Russian, American and French international effort to drill an ice core at Vostok Station was completed in 1998 and reached a depth of 3623 m below the surface at the Russian Vostok Station in East Antarctica (78 o S, 106 o E; elevation 3,488 m; mean temperature -55 o C). In addition to being the deepest ice core ever drilled, the Vostok core is believed to cover the past four glacial-interglacial cycles (over 400,000 years). Samples from the U.S. Vostok ice core are available to any investigator with a funded research project that could benefit by having access to these samples. Unfunded investigators may obtain small quantities for pilot studies only. Contact the National Ice Core Laboratory-Science Management Office (NICL-SMO): Scientists interested in getting samples of Vostok accreted" ice (3538m-3610m), contact NICL-SMO at nicl.smo@unh.edu. An accreted ice sample list can be found at: vostok-accession.html. New Cybermagazine focuses on scientific papers about fish Fish Briefs is a bimonthly, plain language summary of the latest scientific papers about fish with a focus on their interactions with habitat. The magazine is distributed by the American Oceans Campaign. For more information, Carla Brown at aoccb@wizard.net. American Fisheries Society (AFS) Abstracts Due The American Fisheries Society invites proposals for Symposia, contributed paper and posters for its 130th Annual Meeting, to be held at the Adam s Mark Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, August 20-24, The theme is Reflections. Deadline for Symposia proposals is December 15, with the deadline for contributed paper abstracts and poster submissions, January 14. For more information and submission guidelines, visit Alaska Coastal Marine Institute deadline January 10, 2000 is the deadline for project proposals to the Alaska Coastal Marine Institute. For a copy of the proposal guidelines and instructions, visit: projects99/propguide99.html

5 In the News New Federal Regulations hit Kodiak Crabbers New Federal Regulations governing cod fishing in the Bering Sea shut out much of the Kodiak-based crab fleet already reeling from an 80 percent cut in the snow crab quota. The crabbers, according to the Alaska Fisherman s Journal, were looking to supplement their catch by also targeting cod. Ironically, the reduced crab harvest was the subject of a presentation by Jie Zheng, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, at the 17th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium. EVOS Update According to the Anchorage Daily News ( Oil spill fund to bankroll gulf science, 11/16/99), the last of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill settlement will be used for research in the Gulf of Alaska. The $115 million endowment program, called GEM, for Gulf Ecosystem Monitoring, will be a sort of permanent fund for research. The capital will be invested. The interest, perhaps $5-to-$6 million a year, will be dedicated to a long-term research and monitoring program intended to augment the array of studies conducted by state, federal and university agencies. The first of the studies should be funded in October Why is the Arctic ice pack thinning? That is the subject of an article being published in the December issue of the Geophysical Research Letters. The authors, Dr. D.A. Rothrock, Y. Yu, and G.A. Maykut, scientists with the University of Washington, analyzed data collected by nuclear submarines since the late 1950s, and discovered that the average thickness of the ice pack has dropped 40 percent. Whether this is due to natural or man-made causes is still under debate. Seafood consumption up Seafood consumption nationally increased by 3.7 percent in 1998 with more than four billion pounds consumed (almost 15 pounds per person), according to the September 1999 issue of Fisheries. Of that, seafood and shellfish imports comprised 63 percent of seafood consumed, while U.S. exports declined 14 percent. Escaped Atlantic salmon find homes in Canadian streams According to the Alaska Fisherman s Journal, as of August 1999, 43 juvenile Atlantic salmon have been found in Armor de Cosmos Creek, on Johnstone Strait in Lower British Columbia, Canada. While it is impossible to pinpoint exactly where these fish came from, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist, Glen Oliver, is concerned about their impact on wild runs of Pacific salmon. Although only 407 Atlantic salmon were caught in 1998 as compared to 5,033 in 1997, indicating improved security by aquaculturists, a net pen transferring Atlantic salmon from a Washington farm burst this summer, releasing 115,000 fish. Port Snettisham will be second largest sockeye producer in Alaska A$1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, combined with grants of $75,000 and $300,000 from the cities of Wrangell and Juneau, will allow the Port Snettisham hatchery to produce as many as 9-million sockeye smolts annually. The fish will be released from the hatchery and other locations. Owned by Douglas Island Pink and Chum, Inc. (DIPAC) the hatchery is second only to Main Bay hatchery in Prince William Sound which produces 8-10 million juvenile sockeye a year. Students got support for trip to Kodiak Drs. Jim Reynolds, Nick Hughes, Milo Atkinson, and Student Unit President of the Alaska Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Lisa Mostella, raised and administered $2,149 dollars to support student travel to the Chapter meeting in Kodiak in early November. The Alaska Chapter provided $1,149 and the School of Fisheries and Ocean Science $500. Graduate School Dean Joe Kan provided an additional $500. This support covered travel by five students from Fairbanks and one from Juneau. Student reviews of the meeting have been excellent and the trip was a wonderful opportunity for them to meet fisheries professionals and learn more about their field. Academic Services Now Fully Staffed Academic Services is now fully staffed and ready to support you with anything from grant proposal development to classroom materials support. Look in your mailbox for our flyer that described some of the services we offer. REMINDER BINDER Christmas and New Years Remember that UAF will not be closed between Christmas and New Years. The newly authorized paid holidays are Dec and Dec You want to get paid? If you don t want any delays in receiving your paycheck, switch to automatic (electronic) deposit, or make sure we have your correct address. Checks cannot be forwarded and there will be a delay of 2-3 weeks if a check is returned to UAF because of an incorrect address. If you have any questions, please contact us at the SFOS Fiscal Office. We will be happy to help you. Page 5 SFOS News

6 Wakefield on how combining satellite imagery of ocean currents and temperatures with historical data helped identify changes in fisheries, and how new computer modeling techniques could be used to predict changes in habitat. The four-day conference was sponsored and coordinated by the Alaska Sea Grant College Program. Lew Halderson makes a point during the question and answer period following his presentation Forage Fish Abudance and Distribution in Prince William Sound. Anchorage provided a perfect setting for the 17th Annual Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium. SFOS TID-BITS Research Assistant Professor Brenda Konar was in the news again, this time from Florida where she spent most of November. But don t look for a tanned Dr. Konar when she gets back. Most of her time was spent 50 feet underwater as part of a team manning the Aquarius, an undersea research habitat located off Key Largo. Her daily journal articles were posted on ABC News webpage and the entire research team was seen live via web cams aboard the research vessel. Dr. Al Tyler was interviewed by Christopher Clark from KTUU-TV in Anchorage during the 17th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium. Clark asked Dr. Tyler his opinion of a study by a Canadian scientist who predicted that global warming will cause drastic declines in sockeye and pink salmon stocks from Southeast Alaska to Oregon. People Moves The Dillingham MAP Office is now tended by Administrative Secretary Ethel Page 6 SFOS News Ron Dearborn, Director Alaska Sea Grant, talks with Steve Smith from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Nova Scotia Canada. Dr. Tom Shirley presents Latitudinal Versus Habitat Differences in Life History Attributes of Dungenes Crabs. Dr. Tyler talks to Anchcorage television reporter Chrisopher Clark. Joanne Nelson (Joanne) and Administrative Secretary Colleen Lawyer tends the Sitka MAP office. Alaska Sea Grant Program Alaska Science Journeys, the award winning radio program produced by Doug Schneider, can now be heard on RealAudio through the Internet. Check Doug out at: While you re at it, check out Evelyn Brown s interview. You can hear her at: 99ASJ/ _ForageFish.html. For more information on Alaska Sea Grant s publications and programs, visit their web site at: Alaska Sea Grant also has a new toll free telephone number for ordering publications Dr. Tyler, Associate Dean, SFOS, talks with current and former students during a break in the presentations. Editor s Corner: Got News? Newsletter production begins the last week of each month. We are always eager for material and photographs. Al Geist Academic Services, SFOS/UAF algeist@sfos.uaf.edu ( ) Fax: SFOS News is produced by the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences Academic Services University of Alaska Fairbanks Fairbanks, AK