US: NOAA shakes up Alaska fishery survey plans

Published 2024년 6월 21일

Tridge summary

NOAA Fisheries is planning to revamp its Alaska fisheries surveys to adapt to changing marine ecosystems due to climate change. The agency will introduce a new Bering Sea survey, suspend the Alaska Longline Survey in 2024, and shorten three other surveys. This modernization aims to make surveys more efficient, flexible, and cost-effective, using a stratified-random sampling design that allows for quicker response to environmental changes. Unfortunately, a new aerial survey measuring endangered beluga whales has been delayed until June 2025 due to mechanical issues with the plane, but the team will still use drone footage for an abundance estimate.

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Original content

NOAA Fisheries is shaking up its plans for Alaska fisheries surveys as part of a broader effort to reprioritize its survey portfolio and make it more efficient, flexible, and cost-effective.“Alaska marine ecosystems are changing, and our science has to change with them,” Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) Director Robert Foy said of the multi-year effort to redesign and modernize the agency’s surveys.Changes include the development of a new Bering Sea survey, the suspension of the Alaska Longline Survey in 2024, and the shortening of three other surveys.The new annual bottom-trawl survey of the Bering Sea will replace the annual Eastern Bering Sea shelf survey, portions of the eastern Bering Sea slope survey conducted from 2000 to 2016, and the annual Northern Bering Sea bottom-trawl survey.“We will be using a stratified-random sampling design, rather than a systematic grid with fixed stations,” AFSC Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division Director Lyle Britt ...

Source: Seafoodsource