Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

This coastal monitoring study in the northern region of southeastern Alaska, known as the Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project (SECM), was initiated in 1997 and repeated from 1998 to 2006 (Orsi et al. 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002) to develop our understanding of the relationships between annual time series of biophysical data and stock-specific information.

Data was collected in conjunction with juvenile salmon studies in the Gulf of Alaska from 1997-2006 by the Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project.

Important links:
http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/ABL/MSI/msi_secm.htm

Also see related SECM datasets:
station data
nutrients
ctd
zooplankton
fish length and stomach contents

Fish sampling

Fish sampling was accomplished with a Nordic 264 rope trawl modified to fish the surface water directly astern of the NOAA ship John N. Cobb. The trawl was 184 m long and had a mouth opening of 24 m by 30 m (depth by width). The John N. Cobb is a 29-m research vessel with a main engine of 325 horsepower and a cruising speed of 10 knots. A pair of 3-m foam-filled Lite trawl doors, each weighing 544 kg (91 kg submerged), was used to spread the trawl open. Earlier gear trials with this vessel and trawl indicated the actual fishing dimensions of the trawl to be 18 m vertical (head rope to foot rope) and 24 m horizontal (wingtip to wingtip),with a spread between the trawl doors ranging from 52 m to 60 m (Orsi et al., unpubl. cruise report 1996). Trawl mesh sizes from the jib lines aft to the cod end were 162.6 cm, 81.3 cm,40.6 cm, 20.3 cm, 12.7 cm, and 10.1 cm over the 129.6-m meshed length of the rope trawl. A 6.1-m long, 0.8-cm knotless liner was sewn into the cod end. The trawl also contained a small mesh panel of 10.2-cm mesh sewn along the jib lines on the top panel of the trawl between the head rope and the 162.6-cm mesh to reduce loss of small fish. To keep the trawl headrope at the surface, a cluster of three A-4 Polyform buoys, each encased in a knotted mesh bag, was tethered to each wingtip of the headrope, and one A-3 Polyform float was clipped onto the center of the headrope. The trawl was fished with 137 m of 1.6-cm wire main warp attached to each door and three 55-m (two 1.0-cm and one 1.3-cm) wire bridles.

Each trawl haul was fished across a station for 20 min at about 1.5 m/sec (3 knots),covering approximately 1.9 km (1.0 nautical mile). Station coordinates were targeted as the midpoint of the trawl haul; however, current, swell, and wind conditions dictated the direction in which the trawl was set. Trawling effort in the strait habitat was increased to ensure that sufficient samples of marked juvenile salmon were obtained for comparison among previous years. In particular, replicate trawls were conducted in Icy Strait when weather and time allowed, with minimal accompanying oceanographic sampling.

Station Codes:

After each trawl haul, the fish were anesthetized with tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222), identified, enumerated, measured, labeled, bagged, and frozen. After the catch was sorted,fish and squid were measured to the nearest mm fork length (FL) or mantle length with a Limnotera FMB IV electronic measuring board (Chaput et al. 1992). Usually all fish and squid were measured, but very large catches were subsampled due to processing time constraints. Up to 50 juvenile salmon of each species were bagged individually; the remainder were bagged in bulk. All fish were frozen immediately after measurement. During times of extended processing, fish were chilled with ice packs to minimize tissue decomposition and gastricactivity. All chinook and coho salmon were examined for missing adipose fins indicating the possible presence of implanted CWTs; those with adipose fins intact were again screened through a detector in the laboratory. The snouts of these fish were dissected later in the laboratory to recover CWTs, which were then decoded and verified to determine origin.

Frozen individual juvenile salmon were weighed in the laboratory to the nearest gram (g).Mean lengths, weights, and Fulton condition factors (g/FL^3 * 10^5; Cone 1989) were computed for each species by habitat and sampling interval. To identify stock of origin of juvenile chum,sockeye, coho, and chinook salmon, sagittal otoliths were extracted from the crania and preserved in 95% ethyl alcohol. Laboratory processing of otoliths for thermal marks was contracted to DIPAC. Otoliths were prepared for microscopic examination of potential thermal marks by mounting them on slides and grinding them down to the primordia (Secor et al. 1992).Ambiguous otolith thermal marks were verified by personnel at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game otolith laboratory. Stock composition and growth trajectories of thermally marked fish were then determined for each month and habitat.

Whole body energy content (WBEC) was determined by bomb calorimetry in the laboratory for juvenile coho salmon caught in the strait habitat. After removing the stomach contents, individual juvenile coho were dried at 55 Celsius to a constant weight in an oven. Fish were homogenized in a micro-mill to yield a uniform powder, from which 0.50 +- 0.02mg pellet subsamples were formed. Pellets were combusted in a Parr micro-bomb calorimeter following standard methods (Parr Instrument Co. 1994), and WBEC values were expressed in energy units of calories/g dry weight.

Potential predators of juvenile salmon from each haul were identified, measured, and weighed onboard the vessel. Their stomachs were then excised, weighed, and classified by percent fullness. Stomach contents were removed, empty stomachs weighed, and total content weight determined by subtraction. General prey composition was determined by estimating contribution of taxa to the nearest 10% of total volume. The wet-weight contribution of each prey taxon to the diets was then calculated by multiplying its percent volume by the total content weight. Fish prey was identified to species, if possible, and lengths were estimated. The incidence and rate of predation on juvenile salmon was computed for each potential predator species. Overall diets were summarized by percent weight of major prey taxa and the frequency of feeding fish.

Program in a Nutshell

Goal: To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations.

Approach: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data series.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).