Publications

This analysis evaluates the potential economic impacts on directly regulated small entities accruing from the proposed action to implement Amendment 91 to the Fishery Management Plan for Groundfish of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area.

The Southeast Coastal Monitoring project (SECM) is a component of the NOAA Auke Bay Laboratories salmon research program which has sampled juvenile salmon and associated biophysical parameters in northern Southeast Alaska (SEAK) since 1997 utilizing the NOAA Ship John N. Cobb and chartered trawl vessels. Sampling juveniles as they migrate to the Gulf of Alaska, after high-mortality periods of freshwater incubation and early marine residency, provides information on year-class strength that can be used with associated environmental data to forecast abundance of the fish when they return as adults. Data from these annual surveys have been used to develop models that predicted SEAK pink salmon harvests within 16% of actual harvests for 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. However, this forecast accuracy was not achieved in 2006, when pink salmon harvest was well below both the SECM forecast based on juvenile salmon abundance and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) forecast based on previous pink salmon harvest time series. Despite this overestimate, the 2006 SECM forecast accurately identified a decline in average pink salmon harvest. The ADF&G is now incorporating the SECM juvenile data into their annual harvest time series forecast.

Results of the West Coast Pinniped Program

Marine birds and mammals observed in the Yakutat salmon setnet fishery.

This Environmental Impact Statement evaluates the environmental effects of measures to minimize Chinook salmon Bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery.

The Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project has been sampling juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and associated environmental parameters in northern Southeast Alaska (SEAK) since 1997 to better understand effects of environmental change on salmon production. A pragmatic application of this effort is to forecast the abundance of adult salmon returns in subsequent years. Since 2004, juvenile peak salmon catch per unit effort (CPUE) from SECM, modified by other environmental parameters as appropriate, has been used to forecast harvest of adult pink salmon (O. gorbuscha) in SEAK. The forecast of 16.1 million fish for 2008 was within 2% of the actual harvest of 15.9 million fish. This represents the fourth forecast over the period 2004-2008 which was within 11% of the actual harvest. In 2006, however, the harvest was substantially different from the forecast. Although a simple CPUE model did indicate a downturn in harvest for 2006, the forecast was nonetheless 200% higher than the actual 2006 harvest. These results show that the CPUE information has great utility for forecasting year class strength of SEAK pink salmon, but additional environmental data are needed to avoid “misses” such as the 2006 return. Since 2007, the forecast model was developed using stepwise multiple regression, jackknife hindcast analysis, and bootstrap confidence intervals. A four-parameter model was selected as the “best” forecast model for 2009. Juvenile pink salmon CPUE in northern SEAK accounted for 82% of the variability in annual harvest of SEAK pink salmon over the 1997-2008 time period. The amount of variability explained was improved to 99% when the May 20-m integrated sea water temperatures and mixed-layer depths (from the SECM strait habitat) and the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Index were included in the four-parameter multiple regression model. The 2009 forecast from the four-parameter model, using data collected in 2008, is 44.4 million fish, with an 80% bootstrap confidence interval of 37-52 million fish. Juvenile pink salmon peak CPUE collected in southern SEAK from 2005-2007 was highly correlated (r = 0.99) with the peak CPUE from northern SEAK in those years, and was not correlated (r < 0.01) with the residuals from the forecast model. Because the pattern of juvenile abundance was similar for the two areas, no additional variation in the harvest was explained by including the southern region data. However, that time series includes only three years of data; more years may provide additional information on regional variation in pink salmon year-class strength, especially for years when the two areas have distinctly different environmental conditions.

This report looks at the effect of pile driving noise at the Port of Anchorage on juvenile salmonids.

An Environmental Assessment shows that neither of the proposed alternative definitions of overfishing considered by the Council  would have had a significant impact on the human environment.

This report summarizes the comments received during the January 8, 2009, to March 23, 2009, scoping period for an analysis of Bering Sea Non-Chinook Salmon Bycatch Management.

This is a Recovery Plan for the protection and restoration of Lake Ozette sockeye salmon. Lake Ozette sockeye were listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1999. The ESA requires the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)