U.S. Department of Commerce / NOAA	/ OAR /  PMEL  / OERD\  \ NMFS / AFSC / RACE/	FOCI
	Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations

ATTENDING

Ned Cokelet, Al Hermann, Art Kendall, Allen Macklin, Jeff Napp, Ron Reed, Beth Sinclair, Phyllis Stabeno, Matt Wilson (rapporteur)

• PICES Intern program -- The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) has established an Intern Program to allow individuals from PICES member countries to gain experience in operations of intergovernmental scientific organizations and coordination of multi-disciplinary international ecosystem research by working in the PICES Secretariat at Sidney, British Columbia, Canada, for periods up to one year.   The deadline for application is February 1.  A stipend of  $2000 (Canadian) per month will be paid, and travel will be funded by the United States.  For more information, contact the PICES Secretariat, 250-363-6364.

• Workshop on Seafood Sustainability in a Changing Climate -- The Institute for Pacific Ocean Science and Technology and Canadian Institute for Climate Studies, University of Victoria, will hold a two-day participatory workshop, May 25-26,  to identify research needs and policy initiatives to sustain wild fisheries, finfish and shellfish aquaculture under anticipated climate change in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and coastal zones of British Columbia, Washington, and Alaska.  For more information, see http://www.cics.uvic.ca/workshop/.

 
• NSF Announcement of Opportunity: Biocomplexity in the Environment -- Letters of intent are due January 31 for this special competition to award $50 million in grants.  NSF seeks integrated research to better understand and model complexity that arises from interaction of biological, physical, and social systems.  Biocomplexity stems from dynamics spanning several levels within a system, between systems, and/or across multiple spatial and temporal scales.  Research will explore nonlinearities, chaotic behavior, emergent phenomena or feedbacks within and between systems.  The complete announcement is available from http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf0022.

 
• Europeans to cut total allowable catch (TAC) of cod and anchovies --  European fisheries ministers have approved the deepest and widest cuts in maximum commercial fishing levels in the European Union's recent history.  They are trying to avoid the same government renewable resource mismanagement that led to the collapse of the cod fishing economy in Atlantic Canada.  Acting on scientific guidance from ICES, TAC's will be reduced by 20 to 40%.

• Bering Sea crab season delayed -- Because of extensive sea ice covering the southeastern Bering Sea shelf, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has postponed the commercial crab season, scheduled to start later this month, until at least April.

• Bering Sea ice -- Seasonal sea ice in the eastern Bering Sea is on pace with the record ice season of 1976.  Sustained cold, north winds caused rapid growth and spread of the ice pack that is now as far as the Pribilof Islands.  Weather conditions are expected to moderate in the next 6 to 10 days, but then a return to cold, north winds seems likely.  See http://www.alaska.net/~nwsar/html/ice/icef.html for a 5-day prediction of Bering Sea ice extent.

• Modification to MF00-01 operations -- The early February FOCI cruise aboard the Miller Freeman (MF00-01) will likely be altered to include ice-edge work instead of deploying moorings at sites M2 and M3. These two stations are expected to either be covered with sea ice or in the area of commercial fishing. Other activities planned for the February cruise include monitoring at established stations in Unimak Pass and the basin.

 
• Cruise instructions -- Chief scientists are reminded that draft cruise instructions are due 90 days before the start of the cruise.  Submit draft cruise instructions to the Field Operations Leaders (Phyllis Stabeno and Art Kendall) and to Kurt Zegowitz.  General instructions for cruise preparation are available through the OPERATIONS section of the FOCI home page; specific instructions for chief scientists are at ../../operations/guidance/chiefscientist.html

The next FOCI PI meeting will be at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 10 February 2000, in the AFSC Director's Conference Room (4/2143). Please submit to Allen Macklin, no later than the day before the meeting, agenda items and fax-ready copies of figures or handouts that you intend to present at the next meeting. Alternately, presentation materials may be posted on the WWW or e-mailed to remote participants before the meeting.

Mail corrections and addenda to the FOCI Coordinator.