Figure 1. Juvenile rex sole (top) and juvenile arrowtooth flounder (bottom) captured with a beam trawl during MF06-10. Photos by Janet Duffy-Anderson.
Members of the Recruitment Processes Program had a busy summer in the field and on shore. Steven Porter led the EcoEcoFOCI Bering Sea summer ichthyoplankton survey (21-28 June) aboard the Japanese research vessel Oshoro Maru. The objective of the survey was to continue the long-term acquisition of biological and physical data relating to the summer abundance of walleye pollock larvae and juveniles in the eastern Bering Sea shelf region. AFSC scientists have been collaborating with scientists from Hokkaido University for over 10 years, and this time series has been a valuable tool to examine recent changes in the Bering Sea ecosystem.
Janet Duffy-Anderson led an ichthyoplankton and juvenile flatfish survey in the Bering Sea on the Miller Freeman (Cruise MF06-10) 8-13 September. The survey sampled from Bristol Bay to Unimak Island, Alaska. They also examined the depth-discrete patterns in presettling late-stage flatfish at selected locations, and used a 3-m plumb staff beam trawl to conduct bottom sampling for juvenile flatfishes (Fig. 1) in presumed nursery areas.
Annette Dougherty accompanied Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) staff on the second leg of Cruise MF06-10 from 24 September to 9 October. During the cruise, PMEL recovered and redeployed four biophysical moorings in the eastern Bering Sea that form the backbone of NOAA’s observation system for the region. In addition, Annette helped collect samples of larval fish and zooplankton along the 70-m isobath from St. Matthew Island south to Bristol Bay.
Recruitment Processes scientists also attended several important scientific conferences during the summer, sharing with other scientists the results of their recent projects. Morgan Busby, Rachael Cartwright, Bernard Megrey, and Steven Porter attended the American Fisheries Society meetings in Lake Placid, New York, 10 – 14 September, where they presented “Oceanography, ichthyoplankton, and juvenile fish assemblages of the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea, summer 2004,” “Description of early life history stages of northern sculpin (Icelinus borealis),” and “The effect of early and late hatching on the escape response of walleye pollock larvae,” respectively.
Bernard Megrey presented “GeoModeler-Integration of a nutrient-phytoplankton-zooplankton (NPZ) model and an individual-based model (IBM) with a geographic information system (GIS)” at the ICES meetings in Maastricht, Netherlands 19 – 23 September.
Ann Matarese, and Deborah Blood, Morgan Busby, and Rachael Cartwright organized and led the Gilbert Ichthyological Society meetings 22 – 24 September in Newport, Oregon. Busby presented his paper referenced above, and Cartwright presented “Illustration: A Scientific Communication.”
By Jeffrey Napp
Gilbert Ichthyological Society (GIS)
The eighteenth annual meeting of the Gilbert Ichthyological Society (GIS) was held at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, 22-24 September 2006. Charles Henry Gilbert (1859-1928) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He collected and studied fishes from Central America north to Alaska and described many new species. Later he became “the” expert on Pacific salmon and was a noted conservationist of the Northwest.
Scientists in the RACE Division organized the 2006 meeting: Ann Matarese (GIS President), Duane Stevenson (GIS Secretary), Debbie Blood, Morgan Busby, Rachael Cartwright, and Jay Orr. Scientists from California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, representing academia and research organizations, as well as students, presented talks on their current ichthyological research. The opening speaker was John Briggs, world expert on marine biogeography. The keynote speaker was Susan Sogard (Southwest Fisheries Science Center) who presented “Why larval rockfishes are way cool.”
