Respirometer on Board

By Ann Robertson, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer 

A new component of our Gulf of Alaska research this summer is the use of a respirometer on board the ship to measure the oxygen consumption (respiration rate) of fish. We had hoped to investigate the respiration rate of larval and age-0 rockfish. This is done by placing the fish in a closed chamber of oxygenated water, turning on a pump to recirculate the water, and watching the oxygen levels drop as the fish breathes. Unfortunately, only a few rockfish were collected, so we were only able to get a small amount of respirometry data. We were able to bring three small rockfish back to the lab in Juneau where we will continue our respirometry studies.

Our respirometer set up below deck on the Northwest Explorer. Plastic bags covering our electronic equipment prevented any moisture damage while at sea.

St John the Baptist Bay

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

After disappointing low catches of live age-0 rockfish in coastal waters, we decided to sample St. John the Baptist bay in Salisbury Sound, which is about 30 miles north of Sitka. This bay is a known nursery ground for juvenile sablefish and we thought we might find some rockfish there as well. Unfortunately we did not find either, but we did encounter numerous age-0 through age-3 pollock and herring.


Scientists sorting live age-0 pollock from older age classes                       St. John the Baptist Bay looking out on

                                                                                                                                          Salisbury Sound and the Gulf of Alaska in the distance

Finishing the Western Gulf of Alaska survey

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Good weather and large catches of focal fish species made this trip a success, letting us occupy every station on the Western Gulf of Alaska grid in record time. Our crew for this leg is pictured in front of the Holgate Glacier in Aialik Bay - from left to right: Sterling Ulrich, Shari Mullen, Jaclyn Chariw, Mike Neary, Fletcher Sewall, and Wyatt Fournier.

Leg 2 Crew

The most important person on the boat? THE COOK!

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

As we near the end of this leg of the 2012 Gulf of Alaska Project summer survey, I wanted to thank the person that keeps us going, day in and day out. Penelope (Penny) Mallos cooks homemade dishes for every meal and surprises us with a freshly baked desert each evening. She gets up early, and stays up late, cooking and cleaning for all 12 people aboard. A good cook keeps the crew happy, and a happy crew is productive and efficient. After a long day of measuring fish, sorting zooplankton, and taking water samples in the wind and rain, there’s nothing better than coming inside to a delicious warm meal.

Penny, I invite you… no, I beg you to come back out with us next year! You are the best!



The Cook :)

Young of the Year (YOY) Rockfish

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Unlike our young-of-the-year focal cod species (walleye pollock and Pacific cod), larval rockfish are found in patchy aggregations. This may be due to their different reproductive strategies. Cod use a “spray and pray” technique, where males and females release their gametes into the water and fertilization takes place as the ocean currents bring them together. Rockfish are ovoviviparous, which means eggs are fertilized and develop within the mother and young are released as free-swimming individuals.

We’re focusing on Pacific ocean perch (Sebastes alutus) in this project, one of many commercially important rockfishes in Alaska. This species is often called a POP and is just one of 32 species in the genus Sebastes found in the North Pacific. Young-of-the-year Sebastes are notoriously difficult to tell apart in the field and require laboratory techniques to indentify to species. We’re working with Tony Gharrett’s lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to identify the POP within the rockfish we collect. His lab uses single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genetic analysis to distinguish Pacific ocean perch from other rockfish.

Larval Rockfish



Where we catch salmon, we also catch...salmon sharks!

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

As we have mentioned in the field notes before, we occasionally catch one of the North Pacific’s most efficient marine predators, the salmon shark (Lamna ditropis). This species of shark belongs to the family Lamnidae or Mackeral sharks. Sharks in this family are fast, warm blooded (endothermic), active swimmers and include the infamous white shark. Salmon sharks feed upon salmon, herring, sablefish, walleye pollock, rockfishes, and any other fish it is able to catch. It is the most common epipelagic shark, meaning that it lives in waters 0-200 meters depth, in sub-arctic and cold-temperate North Pacific waters. Its range that extends across the Bering Sea to Japan and down to southern Baja California. 

This salmon shark was released alive and well to hunt another day.

Salmon Shark

Pinks and Chums

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Our salmon catches on the Western Gulf of Alaska grid consist mostly of juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and adult, both immature and mature, chum salmon (O. keta). The pink salmon is known as the “humpy” salmon due to the male’s body morphology during spawning, and the chum has been called the “dog” salmon because of its traditional use as sled dog food. These two species are the most numerous of any Pacific salmonid and are of great commercial importance to the state of Alaska. It is likely that a majority of the pinks and chums that we intercept are of hatchery origin. The state of Alaska has a successful history of producing hatchery-born, ocean-raised wild salmon for commercial, sport, personal use and subsistence fisheries. Pacific salmon will gain over 90% of their biomass in the marine environment, feeding upon energy rich prey in the highly productive Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.



Dog Salmon

Pacific cod and walleye pollock

Pacific cod and walleye pollock

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer
Last month, the narrow continental shelf in the Southeast Gulf of Alaska grid produced adequate catches of rockfish and arrowtooth flounder. In contrast, the wide shelf in the Western Gulf of Alaska grid has been producing large catches of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) and walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). These highly important commercial fish of the Gadidae family are the most abundant species of cod in Alaskan waters. The Alaska pollock landings are the largest of any single fish species in the United States.
Last month, both species were slightly smaller and it was very difficult to tell them apart. As both species grow throughout the summer, their body morphology continues to develop and it is much easier to distinguish between the two. The Pacific cod, sometimes called a gray cod, has a deeper body and light brownish color as a juvenile. As adults, this species will develop a long chin barbell. The juvenile walleye pollock have a slender body, a silver tint, a slightly upturned mouth, and a larger eye diameter. As an adult, this species will become fish sticks.

Spiny Dogfish

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Spiny dogfish and pups

We have completed sampling the Yakutat Bay and Kayak Island transects with little success catching our focal fish species. This region has produced moderate to large catches of spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), which continues the trend that began in the northern portion of our southeast Gulf of Alaska grid. The spiny dogfish is the most abundant shark in our oceans and is caught for human consumption, used in liver oil, pet food, fishmeal, fertilizer and leather. It is the only shark that supports fisheries as large as those of the commercially important bony fish. A unique life history characteristic of the spiny dogfish is that they are ovoviviparous, meaning that the embryos develop and are retained within the mother’s body until they are hatched and released. Females can reach 100 cm in length and have a gestation period that can last as long as 24 months, which is longer than any other vertebrate (even whales and elephants). Although the females may produce up to 20 young per litter, the individual pictured below was found with only two pups.

Here we go again…

Survey Grid for Leg 2 of the 2012 field season survey

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer
The 2nd Gulf of Alaska Project survey of 2012 has begun! We have two more graduate students joining us for this leg of the survey: Fletcher Sewall and Shari Mullen. The Northwest Explorer left Juneau and weaved through the Alexander Archipelago on a 23-hour run to the Yakutat Bay transect to begin occupying stations. Once completed, we will travel 100 miles to the Kayak Island transect to sample before heading to the Western Gulf of Alaska grid for the remainder of the survey.

Until Next Time

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer

We are finishing up the first cruise of the 2012 GOAIERP survey, and I am happy to say that this science crew was not only the most efficient group we have had, but also the most pleasant to work with.

Thanks to Elizabeth Cote and Brian Beckman, they will be on dry land for the remainder of the summer. Mike Neary, Jaclyn Chariw, and Sterling Gaulrich will be joining me for the second cruise starting August 3rd.

Crew                                                                                                                                           Sunset

Observing Marine Mammals

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer

Not only has the science crew been busy on deck sorting fish, but our Marine Mammal and Seabird Observer has been recording sightings (or absence of sightings) 12 hours a day. With the Fairweather mountain range in view, it’s not too bad of a job.

Humpback, Fin, and Sperm whales have been sighted multiple times and Steller sea lions and fur seals also came quite close to the boat. One of our trawl sets was delayed by this fur seal as it played around the main wire.

Fur Seal                                                                                                                        Observer

Return of the Daggertooth

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer

We once again encountered the Pacific Daggertooth, this time with a full stomach. It’s not clear if it swallowed the juvenile Chinook salmon before or after being trapped in the net. It is clear, however, that the Dagertooth has a big appetite. The Chinook was quite a catch weighing in at 140g and the Daggertooth was just 340g.

Hungry Dagger

Pink Salmon Stealing Our Catch

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer

Our net is not the only thing in the Gulf of Alaska trying to catch larval rockfish and arrowtooth flounder. Adult pacific salmon, a piscivorous (fish-eating) predator, will also consume our species of interest when they find them. The pink salmon shown below had a belly full of translucent, larval fish. The very fish I was hoping to catch in the net! In this way, the stomach contents of adult salmon can be utilized as another sampling mechanism.

One of the goals of the Gulf of Alaska Project is to understand the interactions between marine predators and our five fish species of interest. To observe predation rates we will collect whole stomachs from Pink, Coho and Chinook salmon that we catch in our trawl net. Diets will be determined by stomach content analysis and data will be given to our modelers to update their predation mortality rates.

Salmon Stomach

Success Offshore!

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer
Jamal and I had hypothesized that occupying stations farther offshore would increase our focal fish catch, and the last few days have strongly supported that hypothesis! From 40 miles out, we consistently encounter larval arrowtooth flounder (ATF), larval rockfish, and young of the year (YOY) pollock. This is a huge success for the GOAIERP project, especially considering our low catches in 2011 when we were sampling within 30 miles from the coast in the Southeast region. Each one of these little fish is tagged with a Sample Identification Number (SIN) and individually bagged to be stored in a -40o C freezer on the ship. Once we reach the TSMRI facility in Juneau, the fish will be transferred to a -80o C freezer until it is time to process them in Ron Heintz’s Nutritional Ecology Lab. Stomachs will be emptied for complete diet analysis, including identifying zooplankton prey to species. Total energetic content of each fish will be determined by bomb calorimetry. To further investigate how energy is allocated during the larval and juvenile life stages, fish will be analyzed in the chemistry lab for protein and lipid (fat) content. One type of lipid that Ron and I find intriguing is Triacylglycerols, a highly concentrated store of metabolic energy that may influence the survival of our focal fish during their first year of life. 

Bag and Tag                                                                                                                              Larval

The Scenic Views

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwestern Explorer

Here are a couple of quick pictures of the views we get from the survey. Mount Edgcumbe just outside of Sitka was a familiar sight.

If you could stay awake after a long day, the sunset proved spectacular. Maybe influenced by the forest fires in Siberia?

Mount Edgecumbe                                                                                                       Sunset

Juvenile Pacific Salmon

By Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Our third new science crew member for this leg is Brian Beckman of NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in the Resource Enhancement Utilization Technology Division (REUTD). Brian is on board to continue his studies of juvenile Pacific salmon which are frequently caught in our trawl net as we fish the epipelagic. Brian is collecting blood to measure Insulin-like Growth Factor, which is an index of growth rate. This relative parameter will allow him to compare the ocean growth of juvenile salmon from surveys off of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska.

Brian is an experience marine researcher and has yet to puncture anything except juvenile salmon with his 22 gauge needle.



Brian & Liz                                                                                                                           Needle            

Time to Get Some Work Done

by Wyatt Fournier, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Okay, now that the lead scientists are finally off the boat, it’s time to get some work done! I have come aboard to relieve Jamal and have brought two fresh science crew members. Mike Neary is our seabird and marine mammal observer and joins us for a second survey year. Also joining us is Liz Cote, a seasoned biological technician in the Fisheries Ecology, Diet and Zooplankton Lab at our NOAA facility in Juneau.

We continue the survey by occupying stations on the Southeast Gulf of Alaska grid. The difference between this year’s survey and the 2011 effort is that we have extended our survey to reach 80 miles offshore, compared to just 30 miles last year (see map below).! At these offshore stations we hope to encounter mesoscale eddies (swirls of water between about 10 and 500 km in diameter that can persist for periods of days to months). These eddies are thought to contribute to the shelf-slope exchange of nutrients and plankton, enhancing biological production. This feature has the potential to influence the larval fish that our study focuses on: rockfish, sablefish, pollock, Pacific cod, and arrowtooth flounder.

As we did last year, we will be collecting samples from three different platforms: the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth)/water sampler, zooplankton bongo nets, and a surface trawl. The CTD/Water sampler (pictured with University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student Sterling Gaulrich) is dropped 200 meters below the surface to record levels of salinity, temperature, oxygen, turbidity, fluorescence, and photosynthetically active radiation. Upon its retrieve water is sampled at eight depths, later to be analyzed for nutrients and chlorophyll. The bongo nets are named after the musical instrument and consist of a pair of rings that hold a fine mesh net to collect zooplankton from the water column. This device is difficult to deploy, and I’m sure some photos will make it onto the blog this summer. Finally, we have our surface trawl that fishes a width up to 50 meters and a depth of 40 meters during our 30 minute haul.

CTD and East Master Grid

End of the line

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Well… an exciting and enjoyable week at sea is coming to an end. The signature electric pulse is running through us as we cram load after load of laundry in the washer, tidy up workstations, and proof data. Chatter of where and how folks are planning to spend their few precious hours in Sitka fills the passageways. “I’m hitting the Highliner for coffee”, “Really? My favorite spot is the Backdoor, their scones rock”,  “You’re giving me a ride to the grocery store, right?”. All the tell-tale signs of a leg change. Russ, Brendan, Luke, Leslie and I jump ship in Sitka; and Wyatt, Liz, Mike, Manny, and Brian will replace us. Jackie, Ray, Penny, Adam, Robin, Edgar, and Sterling will stick it out for a second leg. Best of luck on leg II and see you in Juneau on the 23rd!

End of the line

Live-box sampling

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Unfortunately, we have disappointing news to report on age-0 rockfish collections. After much effort we only have a few live rockfish onboard. The individuals we encountered were very small and our gear was too large to efficiently capture them. We’ll give it another shot in early September.

Live-box

GOAIERP Cruise Crew Intercepts Tsunami Debris

By Leslie Slater, US Fish & Wildlife Service, on the Northwest Explorer

This afternoon, sixty miles offshore under a gray sky and cutting through choppy, rolling seas, we encountered a surprise  -- a large, black buoy drifting near our transect line.  Being the only man-made object seen since we left port a few days ago, its shape and size was unusual enough to lure us over to check it out.  I originally saw it from about ½ mile away while recording seabird and marine mammal observations, losing sight of it occasionally as it fell in the trough.  As we got closer, it still didn’t have the common shape or color of buoys used by the commercial fishing industry in our part of the Pacific.  Its oblong shape and open handles at either end wasn’t a familiar sight even for the experienced ship’s crew of the Northwest Explorer.  Curiosity piqued, the captain nudged the ship alongside the buoy so the deck crew could deftly haul it aboard.  There were no obvious markings to identify its origins.  Neither was there much marine growth attached to it so we surmised it hadn’t been afloat for very long.  A quick Google search revealed that identical buoys have landed on shore as far south as Oregon and as far north (and west) as Kodiak.  While we hope our encounters with tsunami debris will be few, we also hope that any discoveries will assist in looking at the broader dynamics of our marine world.

Tsunami

Aliens

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

We captured a few of the Phronima Hyperrid amphipods on which the creature from the Aliens movie are based. One of the specimens captured was a momma surrounded by her brood. She was surprisingly similar to one in the movie and almost as scary when viewed under the microscope.

Aliens

Fireworks

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

After a long day’s work (and notifying the USCG) we gathered behind the wheelhouse to set off expired flares.

Fireworks

Sablefish soup

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Day one of sampling and so far we’ve only encountered one juvenile sablefish… unfortunately, it was in the belly of a Chrysaora melanaster :(

Sablefish

Sea creatures

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

We caught a Pacific daggertooth on the last net tow tonight. An oddly shaped critter with a head like a barracuda, one centrally located row of large sharp teeth on the upper jaw, and smooth delicate iridescent skin. Way cool! We also caught a rather large female dogfish.

Sea Creatures

Up all night, sleep all day

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

A bleary eyed Russ ‘Slaughter’ Hopcroft could be found bumping into walls this morning… Yesterday we received error messages during test deployments of the water sampler. Through the process of elimination it was determined that the issue must be related to a poor connection in the slip-ring, which makes the electronic connection between the conducting wire and oceanographic instruments through the winch. Thus we tore into the slip-ring, isolated the problem, and made a repair. Reassembling the unit took longer than expected. Everyone knocked off around midnight, but Russ persevered and stayed up until everything was operational.  Thanks Russ! But sorry, we need you to rock all day as well.

Up All Night - Sleep All Day

Day One

By Jamal Moss, NOAA Fisheries, on the Northwest Explorer

Our first day was spent steaming from Juneau to our first sampling station at the southern end of the southeast Alaska grid. The crew threw the lines at 6 am and Captain Ray put Juneau (Alaska’s capital city) on our stern. Scientists were soon roused from their bunks and pointing at all sorts of objects along Juneau’s waterfront. We had beautiful weather as we made our way down Stephens Passage and Chatham Strait and observed humpbacks, seabirds, and sea lions. Finishing touches were put on our sampling plan for the week to come as we steamed south.

Nice Day