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Alaska Fisheries Science Center 2020 Groundfish Seminar Series
2020 Groundfish Seminars held virtually using Webex - Tuesdays @ 10am Pacific.
The Groundfish Seminar Series (2016 – present) at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) starts in early October and ends in mid-December. We host 9 or 10 weekly talks on Tuesdays at 10AM Pacific Time, with speakers from both inside and outside of the AFSC. The purpose is to provide a friendly venue for connecting researchers in the widely dispersed groundfish community so that we can learn about advancements in other geographic locations, or on other species, that might be applicable to you and your work. We encourage speakers to talk in general terms about works-in-progress or newly published findings that might be of interest to a broad community.
The seminar series is hosted by the Groundfish Assessment Program at the AFSC and, as a well-attended seminar series at the AFSC, we attract an audience from other parts of the AFSC, the other five NOAA Fisheries science centers, NOAA Fisheries regional offices, NOAA Fisheries headquarters, other parts of NOAA, non-NOAA parts of the federal government, state agencies, universities, the fishing industry, non-governmental organizations, and independent research groups.
The Groundfish Seminar Series transitioned to a fully online venue for 2020 and had its best season yet, averaging over 90 attendees per talk, reaching 20 states plus Washington DC, Canada and 10 other foreign countries. As always, much of our attendance came from within NOAA Fisheries, with participants from all 6 Science Centers and all 5 Regional Offices, but also included other parts of NOAA, non-NOAA parts of the federal government, 17 state organizations, 21 independent research groups, and 27 universities.
Genomics, Transcriptomics, and eDNA-OH MY! How can advances in these fields help answer your crab and groundfish research questions?
The genomic revolution has prompted major advances in genetics research that can be leveraged to answer myriad questions relating to conservation and management of natural resources. In this talk we will provide an overview of some of these advances and discuss the ways they may be applied to address topics related to groundfish management and the AFSC mission. We hope to provide a roadmap that will give non-geneticists guidance on when genomics approaches might be useful to pursue and how to integrate these methods into their research programs.
Combining fisheries surveys to inform marine species distribution modelling.
Examination of fish communities typically involves creating spatiotemporally-explicit relative abundance distribution maps using data from multiple fishery-independent surveys. However, sampling performance varies by vessel and sampling gear, which may influence estimated species distributions. A framework for combining fisheries surveys to examine distributions on a multi-regional scale, in this case the entire North East Atlantic region, will be presented. Here we use simulation studies to explore the effects of simulated differences in gear efficiency and then applied this methodology to fisheries survey data, while controlling for the use of multiple vessels and gears to collect the information.
Effects of otolith-informed spatial misspecification on assessment model performance.
Understanding how population structure has been altered throughout the exploitation history of a stock is a key element to sustainable fisheries management and future rebuilding plans of depleted stocks. This study used otolith-derived substockand contingent compositional information of winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectesamericanus) to inform alternative operating models, and explore the effect of stock assessment model misspecification on the perception of stock status and the ability for simulated populations to recover from a depleted state. The findings of this study suggest that, when identified, information on local population structure and the relative contributions of substockareas to global recruitment should be integrated into stock assessment and management frameworks to promote recovery and reduce bias associated with derived quantities.
Optimizing multispecies stratified survey designs for Gulf of Alaska groundfish.
In designing and performing surveys of population abundance, fisheries monitoring programs often struggle to determine the sampling intensity and design required to achieve their objectives, and this problem greatly increases in complexity for multispecies surveys with inherent tradeoffs among species. To address these issues, I developed a flexible stratified survey design optimization using a genetic algorithm that optimizes both the stratification as well as the optimal effort allocation across strata subject to pre-specified precision targets. I will present this framework using the Gulf of Alaska groundfish bottom trawl survey as a case example.
Moving toward next generation groundfish tactical and strategic models using oceanographic drivers of recruitment.
Next Generation Stock Assessments seek to incorporate ecosystem considerations to support Ecosystem Based Fishery Management (EBFM). We present NextGen assessments utilizing oceanographic drivers of recruitment for the U.S. West Coast groundfish stocks of sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) and petrale sole (Eopsetta jordani). This work demonstrates practical steps toward developing environmental recruitment indices that can provide leading indicators of recruitment within stock assessments in the absence of survey observations.
What We Did On Our Fall Vacations – Submersible Research on the Fish of Southern California Oil/Gas Platforms
Most of us lead drab and colorless lives as drones and cogs in faceless organizations. With his tales of research around southern California oil and gas platforms, Milton (only his wife calls him Dr. Love) will enter your world like a bright and fanciful rainbow, or a swatch of William Morris wallpaper, or perhaps one of those Baratza espresso makers that look like something out of a caffeine-induced fantasy. A career retrospective published earlier this year in the ICES Journal of Marine Science (https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa002) summarizes in a text-only format what Milton will share with us in an audio-visual extravaganza.
A framework for simulating latitudinal catchability variation.
In recent years, unprecedented warm conditions facilitated a rapid northward range expansion of subarctic fish in the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Due to extreme latitudinal and seasonal variation in day length, these range shifts may change the visual environment where fisheries and fishery-independent surveys encounter subarctic fish, which would affect catchability because vision plays a role in the capture process. In this talk, I will present a model to simulate the effects of latitudinal shifts on the catchability of bottom trawl fisheries and fishery-independent surveys.
An interdisciplinary review of Atlantic cod stock structure in US waters.
The Atlantic Cod Stock Structure Working Group recently reviewed all relevant interdisciplinary information about stock structure of Atlantic cod in US waters, and the interactions of US stocks with adjacent Canadian Stocks. The WG identified a number of mismatches between the two current US management units and biological stock structure, and they proposed five biological stocks in US waters. Learn more about the process and how their recommendations are moving forward for the next benchmark cod assessment, scheduled for 2023.
Veteran intern Antonio Jones at an oyster farm in Drayton Harbor, Washington, checking traps for European Invasive Green Crab. Credit: Northwest Straits Commission
Bering Sea snow crab support a valuable commercial fishery. Photo: NOAA Fisheries.
North Pacific right whale. Credit: Brenda K. Rone
Veteran intern Antonio Jones at an oyster farm in Drayton Harbor, Washington, checking traps for European Invasive Green Crab. Credit: Northwest Straits Commission
Sustainably grown, organic Alaskan kelp is harvested at the Seagrove Kelp Co. farm in Doyle Bay. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Jordan Hollarsmith