The Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (BSIERP) is a partnership between the North Pacific Research Board and the National Science Foundation, funding 35 linked research projects related to the Bering Sea ecosystem.
As part of BSIERP, Dr. Ivonne Ortiz travelled to St. Paul, Pribilof Islands 11-13 November 2010 to give a class to K-12 students about the connections between climate, oceanography, plankton, fish, economics, and management. The class included a talk based on the vertical model developed as part of the ecosystem modeling portion of BSIERP and a computer lab section with exercises based on Alaskan food webs and fish diets.
By Ivonne Ortiz
Lowell Wakefield 2010 Symposium
The 26th Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium was held in Anchorage, Alaska, 8-11 November 2010. The symposium series is sponsored by Alaska Sea Grant and has brought together scientists, managers, fishers, and other interested stakeholders to discuss fisheries topics since 1982.
This year's topic was "Ecosystems 2010: Global Progress on Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management." The meeting was well attended with 108 participants from 19 nations. A full description of the meeting with the program and abstracts is available at http://seagrant.uaf.edu/conferences/2010/wakefield-ecosystems/index.php.
Drs. Ivonne Ortiz and Sarah Gaichas gave four presentations on behalf of the REEM Program. Presentations included "From the Aleutians to the Arctic: Integrating Ecosystem Approaches within the Alaska Fishery Management Process" by Stephani Zador, "The FEAST model for the Bering Sea: Forage/Euphasiid Abundance in Space and Time" by Kerim Aydin, "Use of Regional Food Webs to Explore Fisheries and Foragers Interactions during Cold and Warm Years: A Case Study on Northern Fur Seals" by Ivonne Ortiz, and "What Drives Dynamics in the Gulf of Alaska? Integrating Hypotheses of Species, Fishing, and Climate Relationships Using Ecosystem Modeling" by Sarah Gaichas.
Sarah Gaichas also presented work completed in collaboration with Michael Fogarty and other colleagues at the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the University of Washington. The presentation was titled "Assembly Rules for Aggregate-Species Production Models: Simulations in Support of Management Strategy Evaluation."
