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.