Developing a Research and Restoration Plan for Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (Western Alaska) Salmon (2005) / Chapter Skim
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4 Foundations for a Restoration and Research Plan
4 Foundations for a Restoration and Research Plan
Pages 131-161
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From page 131... ...
· A set of research themes and approaches to accomplish the needed research: this set often includes topics such as processes and variability in the physical environment, species responses to perturbations, food web dynamics, contaminants, essential habitat, monitoring, modeling, process-oriented studies, and retrospective studies. · Implementation and protocol issues: these include topics such as policies for cooperation, identifying and addressing user needs, data quality, management and dissemination, logistics, outreach and education, and community involvement.
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From page 132... ...
Framework 1: Understanding Salmon Life History and Population Dynamics The focus of a fish-centric research program developed within this framework would be to explain annual and longer-term variations in the abundance of salmon in terms of the processes that affect their reproduc
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From page 133... ...
1. How are the reproductive ecology, survival, and growth of salmon influenced by changes in the physical and biological characteristics of their freshwater and marine habitats?
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From page 134... ...
134 ARCTIC-YUKON-KUSKOKWIM SALMON FIGURE 4-1 Salmon life cycle and factors that could influence population variability. This conceptual model is based on the salmon life cycle and can be shared across a wide range of holders of ecological knowledge and provides hypotheses for salmon declines.
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From page 135... ...
Efforts to increase the value of the information gathered by this effort to accomplish the goals of the SSI might include the following: · Development and application of finer-scale stock identification techniques to identify AYK salmon stocks in BASIS samples. · Ensuring that tissue samples from salmon sampled by the BASIS program are preserved to allow later fine-scale stock identification.
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From page 136... ...
· Monitoring studies: For example, how does the abundance, age structure, body size, and fecundity of spawning adults entering a river to spawn change from one year to the next? These studies are essential for understanding population dynamics; they are the bread-andbutter work of salmon biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G)
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From page 137... ...
It is not clear to this committee how the variety of state, federal, and international laws are translated into fishing regulations, the setting of escapement objectives, and other socioeconomic factors. One research theme explores the legal context for salmon management and how it is translated into regulations and escapement objectives.
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From page 138... ...
Questions that can be derived from this framework include the following: · What do we know about the historical evolution of gear types and catch-per-unit effort? · How can we relate human demographic information to the history of salmon abundances?
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From page 139... ...
· Were declines in AYK salmon runs in the late 1990s due to large-scale releases of hatchery salmon that attracted more apex predators (for example, salmon sharks attracted to maturing Japanese hatchery chum or Prince William Sound pink salmon) to the oceanic regions where AYK salmon migrate?
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From page 140... ...
The concept of resilience for the AYK salmon system is illustrated in Figure 4-3. In this figure, hypothetical salmon metapopulations1 are shown over a long period, dating back to times when commercial and sport fishing for salmon did not occur in the AYK region, and when commercial fish catch in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska (for example, sockeye salmon, pollock)
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From page 141... ...
Time Average Salmon Catches (subsistence pressure level) Disaster Population Level FIGURE 4-3a Hypothetical salmon populations under subsistence conditions only.
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From page 142... ...
Time Average Salmon Catches (extensive pressure level) Disaster Population Level FIGURE 4-3c Hypothetical salmon populations with extensive catches.
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From page 143... ...
Restoration-related research questions also fall into this category. Anthropogenic research includes studies on the impact of bycatch and intercept fishing activities in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea on AYK salmon metapopulations.
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From page 144... ...
, to a lesser degree to spawning/riverine life history stages (Kus
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From page 145... ...
? · Were declines in AYK salmon runs in the late 1990s due to climate-induced changes in distribution, abundance, forage base, or feeding behavior of any major marine predators of juvenile salmon in the Bering Sea (for example, beluga whales feeding on juvenile salmon in coccolithophore blooms)
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From page 146... ...
· The AYK SSI should consider controlled-design experiments to assess the effects of existing hatcheries, if any are re-opened; incubation boxes; and other enhancement techniques in the region on salmon populations in small streams.
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From page 147... ...
It also might depend on oceanic conditions affecting the ocean carrying capacity of the Bering Sea and North Pacific. Physical, biological, and chemical variations in the ocean, atmosphere, and terrestrial environment could play important roles.
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From page 148... ...
, reanalysis, a 30+-year accurate history of sea ice concentrations, and a 9-year record of oceanic conditions at mooring M2 on the southeastern Bering Sea shelf (Stabeno et al.
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From page 149... ...
can coexist and have been suggested as operative in the southeastern Bering Sea (Hunt et al.
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From page 150... ...
, the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study (BEST) , the Bering-Aleutian Salmon International Survey (BASIS)
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From page 151... ...
NPRB An overarching research program is the NPRB (NPRB 2004, NRC 2004b) , which has been funded to carry out marine science studies in the North Pacific, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean.
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From page 152... ...
describing the relationship between juvenile distribution patterns and these variables. Another relevant example of NPRB-funded projects is one entitled Nearshore Circulation in the Bering Sea: Towards Community-Based Oceanographic Research, which was led by Larson King (Nunivak Island Native)
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From page 153... ...
Although we understand that climate variability occurs and is reflected in marine populations, we do not know what processes translate physical variability into biological change. Currently, there is no basis for acquiring this knowledge, as no long-term, area-wide ocean research program documents productivity or tracks changes in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ecosystems.
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From page 154... ...
An important goal of the BEST Program must be to contribute to our ability to manage and sustain the marine resources of the eastern Bering Sea, and to pro vide managers and planners with the knowledge of ecosystem re sponse to climate change. BASIS The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC)
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From page 155... ...
An example of an ongoing BASIS research program is the Ocean Carrying Capacity (OCC) Program, Auke Bay Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center/NMFS, that has been conducting surveys of juvenile salmon on the eastern Bering Sea shelf since 1999.
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From page 156... ...
and (5) evaluating the limit or carrying capacity of the Bering Sea to produce salmon and the effect of hatchery salmon on Bering Sea food supplies (principal investigators: Jack Helle, Ed Farley, and Jim Murphy, Auke Bay Laboratory, NMFS, Juneau, Alaska)
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From page 157... ...
. Additionally, since 1991, the High Seas Salmon Research Program, University of Washington, has conducted studies on the food habits, bioenergetics, and feeding ecology of immature and maturing salmon in the central North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska.
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From page 158... ...
The WWF Program goals are to increase access of Alaska Native communities to Bering Sea research by creating opportunities for their participation in research, to increase the number of youth interested in and excited about science, and to inspire confidence within the future leaders of the Alaska Native Bering Sea coastal communities to consider science as a possible career direction and to feel comfortable communicating to scientists, posing questions, and even participating in the process of answering questions that are important to coastal communities. The target audience of the WWF program is Alaska Native coastal communities (Mekoryuk, Hooper Bay/Paimiut, Unalakleet, and the Pribilof Island communities of St.
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From page 159... ...
The FRMP mission is to identify and provide information needed to sustain subsistence fisheries on federal lands for rural Alaskans through a multidisciplinary, collaborative program. A competitive process combining scientific and local review is used to select a package of projects each year which must be approved by a Federal Subsistence Board representing five agencies.
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From page 160... ...
Long time series will play a critical role in assessing the ecosystem changes in the Bering Sea and the North Pacific. While the AYK SSI eventually should be contributing to these data sets with their own observations, they can take advantage of the GEM-sponsored GAK1 hydrographic time series near Seward in the Gulf of Alaska and the M2 biophysical mooring on the southeastern Bering Sea continental shelf that is sponsored by NPRB.
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From page 161... ...
. This provides a catalogue of environmental data for the Bering Sea and the North Pacific and links to the custodians of those data sets.
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