In 2014 the Bering Sea warmed, raising concerns that pollock populations would plummet as they did in the previous warm phase of 2001-2005. But a new study suggests that this time young pollock had alternative resources that weren’t available during the last warming phase to help buffer ill effects of warming. With 2017 showing signs of cooling, […]
Some things just get better with age. Like rockfish mothers. A rockfish might not start spawning until she is 25 years old. As she gets older she produces more, and more robust, young. She continues to produce them over many years, into advanced age – which for some rockfish means 100 or 200 years. That […]
When you forage for food, you need hunt no further than your corner restaurant. When a sea lion forages for food, it could exhaust its time and energy and leave its young to starve while searching the ocean with little chance of success—if it didn’t know where to look. NOAA Fisheries scientist Mike Sigler at […]
Sablefish, butterfish, black cod – by any name, people call this fish delicious. Its delicate texture, buttery flavor and rich omega-3 content add up to a high value fishery: while sablefish make up a small portion of commercial catch by volume, their high price generates a lot of income for Alaska’s seafood industry—a big economic […]
Right now, scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center are at sea collecting information crucial to keeping Alaska fisheries sustainable. The data they collect during yearly stock assessment surveys is used to set quotas for the familiar species that support some of world’s largest fisheries. But sometimes they find something no one has seen before. […]
Right now, young Chinook salmon are leaving the rivers they were born in to begin life at sea. The first year in the ocean is thought to be the most critical time in the life of a salmon, and largely decides how many will live and be available to harvest as adults or return to […]