Auke Bay Laboratories

Scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Auke Bay Laboratories study commercially important fish species such as rockfish, sablefish, and salmon. They conduct research to better understand where fish live during each stage of life and pinpoint what makes them unique, down to their DNA. They also examine marine ecosystems that are essential fish habitats, focusing on ocean processes and chemistry, and food web interactions that impact fish survival.

Our goal is to estimate how many fish are in Alaska's waters through stock assessments. We also want to learn the overall health of fish species, the habitats they utilize, and the ecosystem upon which they depend. We do this through research surveys, laboratory experiments, and by updating mathematical models to gain the best information about Alaska's commercial fish. The data biologists collect is given to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Alaska Regional Office, fishing industries, state and federal regulators, and international groups. These groups make decisions on how much fish can be sustainably caught.

Marine Ecology and Stock Assessment Program

The Marine Ecology and Stock Assessment Program (MESA) has three primary functions: 1) conducting annual stock assessments and producing harvest recommendations for managing fisheries resources in Alaska waters, 2) conducting surveys to assess the status and trends of these resources, and 3) performing ecological process research that informs stock assessments and advances ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Specifically, we produce Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports for Alaska groundfish stocks including sablefish, rockfish, Pacific cod, Atka mackerel, and sharks. We use a variety of fish population models to integrate fishery catch, survey data, biological observations, and theoretical considerations to recommend annual fish harvests. We also conduct a longline survey and tagging studies that inform stock assessments of population demographics, trends, and fish movement. Field and laboratory studies provide important information on different aspects of fish life history such as recruitment (i.e., when a fish is large enough to be caught by a commercial fishery), movement, growth, maturity, and natural mortality. We integrate ecosystem process research into our stock assessments to support ecosystem-based fisheries management. Our work supports the North Pacific Fishery Management Council process and is directly responsive to the mandates of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law that governs marine fisheries management in U.S. federal waters. 

Recruitment, Energetics, and Coastal Assessment Program

The Recruitment, Energetics, and Coastal Assessment Program conducts research throughout Alaska’s five marine ecosystems. Our studies include zooplankton to whales and intertidal to offshore habitats. We track energy flow through the marine food web and assess factors limiting abundance and survival of marine organisms. Our analytical products are used with survey data to assess the response of juvenile fish to changing environmental conditions and the effects on fish predators and commercial fish stocks. We contribute to an ecosystem-based understanding of factors affecting commercial fish populations, protected resources (e.g., humpback whales), and essential fish habitat for making well informed, resource management decisions supporting sustainable fisheries and mariculture.

We conduct fully-integrated studies from sample collection to modeled results, and peer-reviewed publications. We conduct field projects and laboratory experiments designed to understand how fish respond to environmental change. Our state-of-the-art chemistry lab is the Center's largest analytical laboratory and offers a wide variety of analytical capabilities. We perform broad-spectrum analyses on fish health, diets, and condition to better understand food webs and processes of ecosystem change and recruitment variability. We achieve our work through extensive collaborations within NOAA and with external partnerships.

Ecosystem Monitoring & Assessment Program

Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Ecosystem Monitoring and Assessment Program scientists collect information from Alaska's Large Marine Ecosystems to support crucial sectors of our fisheries economy and help reinforce Alaskan communities that depend on marine resources. Our program supports NOAA’s obligations under Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, and the work of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, as well as the Pacific Salmon Treaty and the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.

Our marine research surveys provide unique tools for fisheries managers and decision makers that are forward-looking in nature, which helps Alaska's fisheries industries adapt and maximize benefits. This information provides better outcomes for walleye pollock, Pacific cod, Arctic cod, saffron cod, sablefish, rockfishes, salmon, arrowtooth flounder, Pacific herring, capelin, and sandlance. Our research results inform Alaska marine ecosystem status reports, help salmon stakeholders and managers better anticipate future run abundance, and provide scientific advice to best manage and protect marine resources and human communities.

Our research also supports Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth (EO 13921) and Alaska's budding mariculture industry (kelp and shellfish). There are few undeveloped fisheries in Alaska, but mariculture is underdeveloped and provides new opportunities for economic growth and entrepreneurship. 

Our Auke Creek and Little Port Walter field stations are one-of-a-kind operations, providing the best research infrastructure to inform management of Alaska's most profitable fisheries species and how they respond to variable conditions. Both field stations provide key information for gravel-to-gravel salmon assessment, as well as decades of historical information for comparison. Little Port Walter also provides controlled conditions for studying groundfish and mariculture species.

Genetics Program

The primary goal of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Genetics Program is to utilize genetic tools to inform management of marine resources, primarily fish and crabs. Genetic tools have the advantage of identifying subtle clues that are not recognizable using typical experimental design. For example, DNA shed by marine species (environmental, or eDNA) can track the presence of species in the ocean, even without a net. DNA has been used to track the number of Atka mackerel contributing to a fertilized egg cluster (more than 2!) and can sometimes even help identify new species. 

Our three primary focal areas of research are: (1) conducting genetic stock identification on salmon caught as bycatch or in targeted fisheries to provide required information for regional, national, and international agreements and treaties, (2) investigating the stock structure and stock-specific distribution patterns of federally managed species to inform stock assessments and fisheries management, and (3) using environmental DNA and other molecular tools to understand species diversity, distribution, phenology, and ecology. In addition, we have recently started looking at how changes in the marine environment affect gene expression. Some of our current research includes determining the origin of Chinook and chum salmon stocks incidentally caught (bycatch) in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries, investigating stock structure and adaptation of rockfish, Pacific cod, and sablefish, and using eDNA to investigate species diversity in a changing Arctic and in deep sea environments near coral aggregations. We are also looking at differences in the gene expression in red king, tanner, and snow crab under different ocean acidification conditions and plan to expand this research to fish.