Scientists Bracing for the New Climate Frontier

Rapid changes in the environment brought on by warming temperatures and increasing ocean acidification are prompting new direction in research, say scientists who addressed the 2020 Alaska Marine Science Symposium in Anchorage, Alaska.

“Everything is new,” said Cisco Werner, chief science advisor to NOAA Fisheries, in his presentation to dozens of participants gathered to hear his keynote speech at the Hotel Captain Cook on Jan. 27. “We need to be ready and prepared to deal with surprises, to sample, count and make decisions differently.”

Fifteen to 20 years ago scientists were trying to figure out how physical and biological linkages worked, how physics and marine ecosystems come together, he said. Today they are working with new technologies, autonomous unmanned surface vehicles, artificial intelligence and omics, which are novel, comprehensive approaches for analysis of complete genetic or molecular profiles of humans and other organisms. In contrast to genetics, which focus on single genes, genomics focus on all genes (genomes) and their inter-relationships.

“The last comprehensive evaluation of our surveys was the 1998 NOAA Fisheries Data Acquisition Plan,” Werner told fellow scientists, students and fishing industry participants in the symposium organized annually by the North Pacific Research Board. “There is a need to revisit this data collection to include ecosystem considerations, partnerships with industry and communities, new technologies and new analytical capabilities,” he said.

Average surface ocean pH has decreased 0.1 units below the pre-industrial average and is expected to further decrease by 0.13 to 0.42 units by 2100, and marine heat waves have become longer, he explained.

Werner, one of four keynote speakers at this year’s symposium, is leading National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) efforts to provide the science that will be needed to support sustainable fisheries and ecosystems, end overfishing, rebuild fish populations, save critical species and preserve vital habitats. He supervises the planning, development and management of a multidisciplinary scientific enterprise of basic and applied research. He also oversees NMFS’ science centers and Office of Science and Technology.

Werner’s talk touched on several topics, from changes in the structure of the food web, including changes in the composition of zooplankton, to the warming Blob, which had an adverse impact on waters of the North Pacific between 2014 and 2016. “If scientists could accurately forecast the Blob, how would they use this information?” he asked. “We have to manage for variability, not stability, which is key to adaptation.”

Sockeye Forecast Down for Copper River, Upper Cook Inlet

A total run of 1.4 million sockeye salmon, along with 60,000 Chinooks, are expected to return to the Copper River in 2020, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G).

The state forecast released on Jan. 28 compared with the recent 10-year average (2010-2019) of 2.1 million wild sockeyes returning to the Copper River, along with 48,000 kings. If these runs come in as forecasted, the sockeye run would be 32.7 percent below average, while the king run would be 20 percent above average.

State biologists also predicted a Gulkana Hatchery sockeye salmon run of 109,000 fish, which would be 62.3 percent below average, still bringing the total Copper River red salmon returns to 1.5 million fish, with a harvest of 771,000 reds. Scientists are estimating a common property harvest of kings at 36,000 fish.

Biologists were also pointed out that salmon forecasts are inherently uncertain and are primarily used to gauge the magnitude of expected runs and set early-season harvest management strategy.

In 2020, the department will continue to manage Prince William Sound area commercial salmon fisheries in-season based on the strength of salmon abundance indices including sonar counts, weir passage, aerial escapement surveys and fishery performance data, they said.

ADF&G also forecast Prince William Sound runs of 4.4 million pink salmon, with a range of 1.2 million to 16.3 million, which would be 18.8 percent above average. They estimate a chum salmon run of 604,000 fish, with a range of 342,000 to 865,000, which would be 18.9 percent above average.

For Upper Cook Inlet, state fisheries biologists are predicting a run of 4.3 million sockeye salmon, considerably below the 20-year run average of 5.9 million fish, with a potential commercial harvest of 2.3 million reds.

In 2019 commercial harvesters caught 1.7 million sockeyes, which was 1.3 million less than the preseason forecast of 3.0 million fish.

Major sockeye salmon streams in Upper Cook Inlet are the Kenai, Kasilof and Susitna rivers and Fish Creek. The /ADF&G is predicting a run of 2.2 million for the Kenai River, 38 percent less than the 20-year average of 3.6 million, and 723,000, 26 percent less than the 20-year average of 971,000 for the Kasilof. It also expects 571,000 for the Susitna, which is 49 percent greater than the 20-year average for the Susitna. For Fish Creek, the run forecast is 121,000 reds, which is 42 percent greater than the 20-year average of 86,000.

“Temperature controls everything and salmon are sensitive at certain life stages critical to them,” noted Bob DeCino, an area research biologist for ADF&G at Soldotna, who issued the forecast on Jan. 28. “When we get a really warm north Gulf of Alaska it will affect the run timing for the fish in Upper Cook Inlet. They come in later.”

The Upper Cook Inlet forecast also includes a prediction of commercial harvests of 6,900 Chinook, 74,000 pink, 175,000 chum and 203,000 coho salmon.

Omega3-Rich Cod Skins Have Medical Uses

Omega3 rich Atlantic cod skins from wild Icelandic cod, the outgrowth of an Icelandic research project, are helping medical doctors treat burns, chronic skin wounds, hernia and dura repairs and reinforcement of gastrointestinal stapled incisions.

The full-thickness wild cod meshed skin grafts, gently processed by Kerecis, in Isafjordur, Iceland, 30 miles south of the Arctic Circle, have been successfully used to date to treat both people and an array of animals ranging from dogs, horses, turkeys, turtles to llamas.

Kerecis’ stated mission is “to extend life by supporting the body’s own ability to regenerate.”

The product itself, which has a shelf life of five years, is processed fish dermal matrix composed of fish collagen and is supplied as a sterile intact, or meshed sheet, ranging in size from 3 x 3.5 cm and 3 x 7 cm to 7 x 10 cm.

Currently Kerecis, which began commercial operations in 2013, is in discussion with medical personnel in Australia, and working with animal organizations also in Australia, to help koalas and kangaroos injured in devastating forest fires plaguing that nation.

A spokesperson for the company, Kay Paumier in Campbell, Calif., said that Kerecis shipped 500 units of Kerecis Omega3 Burn to New Zealand in the wake of the Dec. 9, 2019 volcano eruption on White Island, along with Kerecis medical director Dr. Hilmar Kjartansson who trained doctors in how to use the processed skins.

Kerecis has also donated several grafts to charitable veterinary cases based on the need of the animal, including an 18-month-old female Rottweiler named Stella, who was treated at the veterinary hospital at Michigan State University for extensive burns and lung injuries suffered in a house fire, which required a different kind of treatment. Doctors at the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine said Stella’s case offered proof that further investigations into using an acellular fish skin omega-3 rich graft should be undertaken in dogs with open wound healing. Placement of this product does not require anesthesia and can be used in cases where there is concern for respiratory stability, as was the case with Steller, who made a complete recovery.

Kerecis uses North Atlantic cod fish (Gadus Morhua), which is in ample supply in Iceland. Paumier noted that the fish is sustainably harvested in pristine waters and comes from a supply chain that uses every part of the fish. The manufacturing process of medical-grade fish skin uses only green energy. “As the business expands, we are constantly reviewing options for providing raw materials and will look to multiple locations based on the market need,” she said. Kerecis holds patents for the medical use of fish skin regardless of the type of fish. “We are constantly evaluating new ways to bring innovative products to market. We actively pursue research and product-development initiatives to increase our source material and applicability of our sustainable approach to healing through the power of fish skin.”

Seafood Added $5.6B to Alaska Economy in 2017–2018

Alaska’s seafood industry added $5.6 billion in economic output to the state economy in 2017–2018, employing nearly 59,000 workers in harvesting, processing and other industry-related jobs who earned a combined $1.7 billion in wages.

The 29,400 commercial fishermen employed in harvesting fish in each of those year came away with earnings of more than $1 billion.

The 5.7 billion pounds of seafood worth $2 billion that was harvested annually in those years was turned by processors into 2.8 billion pounds of seafood product worth $4.7 billion. Exports of about two thirds of Alaska seafood, in sales value for 2018, went to 97 countries, while the other third was purchased domestically.

The processing sector employs an average of 26,000 workers at 166 shore-based plants, 49 catcher-processor vessels and about 10 large floating processors. The industry also supports more than 40 different occupations, including vessel builders, shipyard workers, machinists, engineers, electricians, cooks and laborers.

In fact, the seafood industry directly employs more workers than any other private sector industry in Alaska and is the foundation of many rural communities.

The national economic impact of the Alaska’s seafood industry includes $8.0 billion in multiplier effects generated as industry income circulates throughout the country economy.

The study, prepared by McDowell Group in Juneau, Alaska, is the latest report on the economic value of the state’s seafood industry. The group compiled the report with consideration only for the commercial seafood industry and does not account for the additional multi-million-dollar economic impact of recreational, charter and subsistence fisheries in Alaska. It was prepared for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, a public-private partnership of the state and the seafood industry. According to the report, the state’s commercial fleet includes more than 9,000 vessels, which if lined up bow to stern, would span over 64 miles. Regardless of vessel size or involvement, each fishing operation represents a business generating new income from a renewable resource.

Since statehood in 1959, Alaska’s commercial fisheries have produced more than 181 billion pounds of seafood, or 12.9 billing servings annually, enough to feed everyone in the world at least one serving each year.

Regional economic trends in the seafood industry documented by the report show that the number of resident commercial fishermen has declined from 3,489 in 2012 to 2,590 in 2018, while the gross earnings of those harvesters rose from $19 million to $20 million. The value of regional harvests rose from $11 million to $13 million and first wholesale value rose from $13 million to $17 million for those years.

Alaska Marine Science Symposium Opens Jan. 27 in Anchorage

The annual Alaska Marine Science Symposium, which brings together scientists, educators, resource managers and others, opens Jan. 27, with presentations about the latest research in Alaska’s marine ecosystems.

The conference, presented at the Captain Cook Hotel, will open with presentations by four keynote speakers, followed by three days of meetings focused on the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and the Arctic respectively. Research topics on the agenda range from ocean physics, fishes and invertebrates to seabirds, marine mammals and local traditional knowledge. The event is sponsored by the North Pacific Research Board.

This year’s keynote speakers include Western Arctic Parklands superintendent Maija Katak Lukin; Cisco Werner, chief science advisor to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Sebastien de Halleux, chief operations officer of Saildrone; and Andrew Pietruszka, an underwater archaeologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

A workshop on the opening day of the symposium will be led by Brian Brettschneider, an expert on climate science in Alaska who generates seasonal sea ice forecasts for the International Arctic Research Center. His presentation will focus on how to effectively use social media to deliver scientific content. Brettschneider, one of Alaska’s esteemed climatologists, has a social media following of over 16,000 people. His workshop is free and space is not limited. It will run from 9 a.m. to noon at the Captain Cook.

NOAA Fisheries research biologist Steve Barbeaux, will talk about heatwaves and their impact on Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska during the Tuesday afternoon session.

Also, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the symposium will sponsor an ocean acidification town hall, with five-minute updates from ocean acidification researchers ranging from open ocean and nearshore monitoring to species response in the lab. A question and answer session will follow.

The agenda and abstract book for all four days is now posted online at https://www.alaskamarinescience.org/.

Today is the deadline for online registration. You can find the form at https://www.alaskamarinescience.org/register.

AK Board of Fisheries Cuts Kodiak’s Salmon Allocation

This past week, the Alaska Board of Fisheries set new limits on commercial salmon harvests for the Kodiak area.

The Cape Igvak salmon management plan, proposal 60, called for a reduction of the Cape Igvak section allocation from 15 percent to five percent of the total Chignik area sockeye salmon catch. Proposal 64 amended management plans to restrict the commercial seine fishery from June 28 through July 25. Both proposals passed following a 4-1 vote.

Kodiak Salmon work group chairman Duncan Fields, a veteran harvester and former member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, told Kodiak public radio station KMXT that in dollar terms the passage of those proposals will cost Kodiak $2 million to $3 million annually. Fields also expressed concern that the fisheries board didn’t seem swayed by testimony from Kodiak fishermen who packed the standing-room only meeting to speak in defense of their fishery.

A number of those who testified noted that the Cape Igvak plan currently in place doesn’t allow Kodiak harvesters to fish until Chignik has received a certain number of salmon and during Chignik’s most disastrous recent years, Kodiak fishermen didn’t fish Cape Igvak.

The decision on the proposals came to a 4-1 vote because board member Fritz Johnson of Dillingham was absent and board member Gerad Godfrey of Eagle River had to recuse himself, because his uncle hold a Kodiak district seine permit.

In a letter to board chairman Reed Morisky prior to the vote, Fields said the work group challenged board member Marit Carlson-Van Dort’s ethics disclosure statement, which said there were no interests of a personal or financial nature that she or any members of her immediate family have that may be affected by the proposals before the board.

Fields said the work group had learned that Carlson-Van Dort has first, second and third cousins who hold Chignik District salmon seine permits and that the work group found it difficult to believe that none of her relatives would be personally or financially impacted by those proposals.

A summary of all proposal actions taken at the Kodiak meeting is available online at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs/2019-2020/kodiak/soa.pdf
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The fisheries board will take up Upper Cook Inlet finfish issues at its Anchorage meeting slated for Feb. 7-19 and statewide king and tanner crab and supplemental issues on March 8-11. Details on proposals to be covered at those meetings and how to participate can be found online at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fisheriesboard.meetinginfo.

Fishing Vessel Drill Conductor Training Coming to Petersburg, Alaska

Commercial fishermen in Southeast Alaska can learn or refresh their skills in fishing vessel safety with a fishing vessel drill conductor class being offered in Petersburg on Feb. 10 at the Tides Inn.

The class offers an excellent opportunity for commercial harvesters and others to get hands-on training with marine safety equipment and learn best practices for surviving emergencies at sea.

The Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) is offering the class at a cost of $95 for commercial fishermen and $175 for all others. The association is able to provide the reduced price thanks to support from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, and AMSEA members.

The curriculum from instructor Chris Angel includes cold-water survival skills, EPIRBS (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), signal flares, and mayday calls, man-overboard recovery, firefighting, flooding and damage control, dewatering pumps, immersion suits and PFDs, helicopter rescue, life rafts, abandon ship procedures and emergency drills.

All AMSEA fishing vessel drill conductor workshops meet the US Coast Guard training requirements or drill conductors on commercial fishing vessels.

Register online at www.amsea.org or call 907-747-3287. Check the website for a complete list of upcoming AMSEA courses, including additional fishing vessel drill conductor training and first aid and CPR/AED classes.