Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI)

• FOCI’s new NOAA Corps Officer reports August 28 - Allen Macklin: Kurt Zegowitz will join FOCI at the end of the month. His first sea duty will be the final mooring cruise this fall. He will work closely with Phyllis Stabeno on the biophysical moorings and with Allen Macklin on FOCI coordination. Kurt is completing his tour aboard the Townsend Cromwell, and has a background in marine science.

• Significant migratory sea bird mortality - Allen Macklin: Karen Lang, ADF&G, reports a significant die-off of migratory seabirds in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. George Hunt has also observed high sea bird mortality. Other anomalous conditions, including high sea surface temperatures, unusually calm conditions in the Bering sea, and weak Bristol Bay salmon runs have also been reported. These may be associated with the current El Nino, although, by past standards, it is months too early for the connections to the mid and high latitudes.

• Initiative 2000 - Allen Macklin: John Hunter issued a call for ideas for NMFS’ Initiative 2000. The following ideas have been submitted:

• Pat Livingston - track year class strengths of pollock and hake based on the incidence of cannibalism.
• Anne Hollowed - establish permanent line east of Kodiak for bimonthly monitoring of inshore/offshore movements of fish.
• Anne Hollowed - conduct feasibility study for summer juvenile survey.
• Anne Hollowed - equip "ships of opportunity" with XBT’s to get temperatures at depth, to monitor shape and extent of the cold pool. Fishing vessels or others that routinely traverse the region could be used. Fishery observers also might collect the data.

• McPhaden, Harrison, Bond (PMEL) - Extend NOPP network of monitoring buoys in the North Pacific.
• Overland (PMEL) - Install 15 biophysical moorings in Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. Develop a model assimilating data from moorings and monitoring network.

• SEBSCC PI meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, 24-25 November - Allen Macklin: Terry Whitledge cannot attend on that date. Jeff Napp suggested that Terry's presence is critical and that the date should be changed to accommodate him.

• PMEL 25th Anniversary Review in June 1998. Other FOCI scientists may be asked to assist in presentations.

• W9706C, 30 June 1997- 14 July 1997.- Matt Wilson: The weather was excellent and all objectives were accomplished, except at one station that was fished too shallow. The acoustics equipment was calibrated, the biophysical transects, Pribilof Island transects, and Canyon Transport stations were sampled. Deviations from the original cruise plan included repeating the CTD transect on line A, which showed differences in the temperature profiles and front locations on the 2 dates, possibly due to tidal changes. Line D was extended 20 nm, at the request of the seabird biologist, and CTD and bongo samples were taken along the extension. Several Tucker trawls were added to the sampling regime.

• Oshoro Maru - Ric Brodeur: The third year of sampling on the Oshoro Maru showed that pollock densities in July were highest around the Pribilofs, consistent with the previous 2 years. Hiro collected jellyfish for stable isotope and gut content analysis, to evaluate them as predators of juvenile fish. Abundances of age-1 pollock indicate that the 1996 year-class is a strong one.

• Collaboration with Japanese - Ric Brodeur: Next year the Oshoro Maru will arrive in Seattle 13-18 July 1998 and depart for the Bering Sea, going as far north as St. Matthews. They have offered to let FOCI sample during that leg of the cruise, providing an opportunity to sample during the summer and to get an early indication of year-class strength.

• SEBSCC, FOCI, ARI, GLOBEC: Allen Macklin has called for SEBSCC input on plans for 1998. No responses have been received to date. As the monitoring program is only in its third year and process-oriented studies in the second, little change is anticipated. A draft of the cruise schedule has been distributed, but the ship to be used this fall is still uncertain. The Canadian ship Ricker may be chartered. The backup plan was to send out a self-contained CTD to record data, and to make integrated instead of MOCNESS tows from the Tiglax. Alternative plans were suggested for using some combination of the 3 ships: Alpha-Helix, Tiglax, and Redeemer.

• Project description forms for field work are due this month. Field operations schedules based on these forms will be distributed next month.

Please mail corrections and additions to the FOCI Coordinator.

U.S. Dept. of Commerce / NOAA / OAR / ERL / PMEL