Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center
2008 Awarded Research Projects
Project Title: Bering Sea temperatures and their relationship to walleye pollock fisheries: a feasibility study of year-round near-real time data acquisition
Principal Investigator: Mark Johnson
Award: $68,900
Estimated Completion: January 31, 2010
Abstract
In 2005, fishery landings in Alaska were 5.7 billion pounds, or almost 60% of the total pounds landed in the U.S. (NMFS 2007). Approximately 40% of all U.S. fish and shellfish landings occurred in the eastern Bering Sea. The nation's top seafood port in 2005 was Dutch Harbor- Unalaska, accounting for 888 million pounds of landings worth $283 million before value-added processing. These numbers make fishing efficiency and long-term sustainability key elements to Alaska's economic growth. The purpose of this proposal is to conduct a feasibility test to determine the usefulness of near real-time temperature data from the Bering Sea to commercial fishers and fisheries managers. It is anticipated that knowledge of Bering Sea bottom temperatures and vertical profiles of temperature will help determine fishing locations more efficiently, and will be important to fisheries managers. Bottom and water column temperatures will be acquired using free-drifting profiling floats. For this feasibility test, and to keep costs down, we will deploy and acquire data from two floats with temperature data transmitted weekly to the PIs. Following transmission and receipt of data, we will post it as soon as possible on the Alaska Ocean Observing System web site. We will determine whether data maps faxed to commercial fishers is also useful, building on past positive AOOS experience. Following this study, the full data set of temperature can be used in fisheries models, and used to establish a baseline of modern temperature records from the fishing grounds of the Bering Sea.
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