Dozens of marine scientists from the United States, Canada and beyond converged on Anchorage this week to report on research projects pertinent to fish and fish habitat, and much more in the Arctic, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska.
The annual event, organized by the North Pacific Research Board, is sponsored by a variety of federal and state agencies, plus commercial fisheries, conservation and environmental organizations. It is open to the public and continues through Friday.
This year’s keynote speakers included Eddy Carmack of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, speaking on the interconnected roles of the Arctic and subarctic oceans in global change. By looking at and understanding the changes taking place in the Arctic, scientists may develop potentially powerful tools to manage and cope with emerging global-scale issues, Carmack said.
Carin Ashjian of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Jeff Napp of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center did a keynote presentation on understanding ecosystem processes for the Bering Sea. Their research is part of an effort of the North Pacific Research Board and National Science Foundation in support of a comprehensive multi-million dollar investigation of the eastern Bering Sea ecosystem to understand how climate change and associated changes in sea-ice are impacting this ecosystem and consequences of these changes on fish, seabirds, marine mammals and ultimately people. The partnership is now in its sixth year
Jamal Moss and Olav Ormseth of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center spoke about the Gulf of Alaska integrated ecosystem research program. Their research is focused on identifying and quantifying the key processes that regulate recruitment of five commercially and ecologically important groundfish species.
Complete details on the symposium are online at www.alaskamarinescience.org,
Including abstracts for every presentation scheduled for the gathering.
FN Online Advertising
.gif)