The 25th Northeast Pacific Pink and Chum Workshop was held in Juneau, Alaska, on 13-15 February 2012. A total of 110 participants contributed 56 oral or poster presentations at the workshop, with meeting participants from around the entire Pacific Rim including Alaska, Canada, Washington, Oregon, Japan, and Russia. The 3-day workshop was co-chaired by Joe Orsi and Emily Fergusson of the Center’s Auke Bay Laboratories and Steve Heinl of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Additional organizational contributors to the workshop included the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Douglas Island Pink and Chum Inc., the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Pacific Salmon Commission, and Saint Hubert’s Research Group.
A goal of the workshop is to facilitate the rapid exchange of findings and ideas by bringing together biologists, managers, researchers, and others in an informal setting to explore innovative research and management approaches and to expand our knowledge of the biology of pink and chum salmon populations. An exciting list of topics and speakers this year made the 2012 workshop productive and relevant to current issues facing these species. Workshop session topics included habitat restoration projects, genetics, fisheries management strategies, enhancement history, economics, conservation biology, stocks of concern, endangered species, resource stakeholder perspectives, salmon forecasting, modeling in ecosystems, and freshwater and marine ecology. Abstracts and poster presentations from the workshop are available online.
The Pink and Chum Salmon Workshop was first started in 1962 in Juneau and continues to have a long legacy. Traditionally, the workshop has occurred on alternate years and now is hosted rotationally among Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington. The next workshop is scheduled to be hosted by Washington in 2014.
By Joe Orsi, Emily Fergusson, and Molly Sturdevant
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