MISSION GOALS

Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) is a joint effort by scientists at PMEL(Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory) and AFSC(Alaska Fisheries Science Center) to understand the biological and physical processes which cause variability of recruitment to commercially valuable fish and shellfish stocks in Alaskan waters. One component of the FOCI program is studing the effects of the biotic(living) and abiotic(non-living) environment on the early life stages of the Walleye pollock spawned in Shelikof Strait. There are two aspects to the study: the acquisition and analysis of time-series data, and specific process-oriented studies on a cruise-by-cruise basis.

This cruise plan is designed to achieve maximum coordination with sampling by the DISCOVER (April 23-May 5). The DISCOVER will conduct a pre-survey of the region and also conduct a broader scale picture, within which the MILLER FREEMAN'S process-oriented sampling will be nested. The principal objective of this cruise is to examine several important biophysical conditions as they related to larval pollock distribution, abundance and mortalty. The physical conditions include the occurence of storms, eddies, and fronts. Each of these conditions have important consequences to larval pollack survival, but by nature their occurance is sporadic and their duration is ephemeral. Since the occurence and discovery of any one of these features is risky, the cruise is designed with that risk in mind and to optomize contingencies. Secondary objective are: (1) to continue acquisition of long-term biological and physical time series; (2) to conduct a survey of larval pollock for use in estimating distribution, drift and mortality rates; and (3) to collect samples of larval pollock and their prey for studies on growth and condition.


NOAA TEACHER AT SEA