2023 Alaska Fisheries Science Center Seminar Series

The 2023 Alaska Fisheries Science Center Seminar Series provides a venue for researchers to present new research on fish, fisheries management, marine mammal ecology, and habitats across Alaska’s marine ecosystems. The seminar series starts in late February and ends in early May. We host 9 or 10 weekly talks on Tuesdays at 10 am Pacific Time, with speakers from both inside and outside of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

2023 AFSC Seminar Series Overview Poster

2023 AFSC Seminar Series Poster

February 28, 2023 — Andy Ostrowski

Andy Ostrowski Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, February 28th @ 10 am Pacific

Biology and life history processes, ageing and research at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) provides science support to one of NOAA Fisheries most complex regions. The southeast (SE) region's federal fisheries are managed by three fisheries management councils and two state fishery commissions across eight states, one territory and one commonwealth. The SE region supports the nation's largest recreational fishing sector, and historically has had limited fisheries independent surveys. Within this setting, the Biology and Life History Branch (B&LH) focuses on providing essential data for population and stock assessments, including fish age and growth, natural mortality estimates, reproductive status, and life history and ecological requirements. With biological sampling going as far back as the early 1970's, our data encompasses a heavy fisheries-dependent sample set with an average of 83k ageing structures received annually. Using data generated from these biological samples, we support an average of 5-6 stock assessments per year. The B&LH branch is also involved in research, conducting age validation, shape analysis studies, and evaluating and incorporating advanced technologies into our research and production ageing. This will be a broad overview of our program, including our sample processing, ageing, data analyses, challenges and research. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Andy Ostrowski 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 — Ben Richards

Ben Richards Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, March 7th @ 10 am Pacific 

Exploring the Potential of Human-Augmented AI for Marine Resource Surveys: Focusing on Fish Stocks and Coral Reefs

As underwater camera and autonomous survey technologies become increasingly prevalent, the demand for efficient processing of marine resource survey data grows. In this presentation, we will delve into the benefits of using human-augmented AI for analyzing survey imagery, specifically focusing on fish stocks and coral reefs. While AI can significantly aid in automating the detection and counting of underwater species and habitats- even creating digital environmental reproductions that can be surveyed in the lab- human expertise is still crucial for creating high-quality training data and ensuring the accuracy of results. 

We will highlight the potential of combining AI and human expertise to overcome the limitations of either approach alone. This can increase the speed, reliability, and reproducibility of results and can lead to analytical methods that would not be possible otherwise. By leveraging the power of human-augmented AI, we aim to open new paths to understanding our oceans and the species that inhabit them. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Ben Richards 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, March 14, 2023 — Joe Warren

Joe Warren Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, March 14th @ 10 am Pacific 

Conducting an Acoustic Survey of Sardines in the Philippines?

Sardines are a critical part of both the Philippine diet and economy. A variety of fishing methods ranging from hook and line, lift nets, and vessel-based nets are used throughout the country by fishing companies, communities, and individuals. Further complicating the study of sardines in this region is the spatial extent and geographic variability of a country composed of more than 7,500 islands. With support from the Atkinson Foundation and colleagues at the Environmental Defense Fund and Cornell University, a pilot study was conducted in 2018 to determine if passive and/or active acoustics would be useful tool for BFAR (the Philippine version of NMFS) to monitor or assess sardine abundances. A follow-up trip (ending four days prior to this seminar) was undertaken to: train BFAR personnel in the operation of fishery echosounders, conduct pilot acoustic surveys, and provide them with two multi-frequency, broadband echosounders to use for additional data collection. Follow-up meetings are scheduled with BFAR personnel to undertake data analysis and interpretation. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Joe Warren 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 — Claude Dykstra

Claude Dykstra Presentation Flyer

Letting Pacific halibut off the hook: relating capture and physiological conditions to viability and survival of fish discarded from commercial and recreational hook and line gear 

Mortality of fish discarded from commercial and recreational fisheries is commonly estimated by using physical injury or reflex keys to assign fish to different viability categories with unique estimated survival outcomes. While it is known that environmental and physiological conditions of released fish can influence survival estimates, these relationships have not been explored in Pacific Halibut. Here, I will present results from recent studies conducted by the International Pacific Halibut Commission to directly estimate survival with the use of acceleration-logging pop-up archival transmitting tags and to examine the relationships of environmental and physiological parameters, viability classifications and survival of Pacific halibut discarded in the commercial and charter recreational fisheries. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Claude Dykstra 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, March 28, 2023 — Keith Fuller

Keith Fuller Presentation Flyer

The use of machine learning and electronic monitoring in Pacific sleeper shark population assessment

Electronic Monitoring (EM) technology has found extensive applications in the field of fishery sciences. While on-vessel recording does allow for fleet coverage beyond what on-board observers could reasonably provide, the amount of data generated from these videos requires significant investment and time to review and disseminate. This has prompted exploration into machine learning technology as a tool to review EM data more quickly and accurately for fisheries assessments. The Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus) are data-limited in Alaskan waters and may greatly benefit from increased EM coverage and improved, efficient processing. To test the utility of machine learning technology in the identification of S. pacificus from EM video data, we examined the accuracy of sleeper shark detection, tracking and classification of a series of custom machine learning algorithms. Results suggest that machine learning has the potential to significantly increase EM processing capability with minimal loss of accuracy for S. pacificus and may strengthen our understanding of the S. pacificus population status throughout Alaskan waters. Our current work also looks to develop an algorithm capable of estimating the size of sharks caught by EM equipped vessels without the need for a physical in situ measurement. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Keith Fuller 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 — Jessica Glass

Jessica Glass Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, April 11th @ 10 am Pacific 

Long Live the Kingfish: Integrating Genomic Patterns and Ecological Processes to Understand Evolution in the Oceans

The field of genomics has revolutionized evolutionary biology and our ability to detect linkages between genes, behavior and the environment. Using genome-wide sequencing techniques, we are able to resolve historically contentious relationships across the Tree of Life. Integrating genomic tools and environmental datasets, my research program addresses themes that span the realm of resource management and conservation in the oceans including biodiversity, competition, environmental adaptation and population structure. I demonstrate how the combination of genomic, environmental and behavioral datasets provides a powerful approach to investigate biological responses of marine species to anthropogenic and natural environmental stressors. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Jessica Glass 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 — Phil Ganz

Phil Ganz Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, April 18 @ 10 am Pacific 

The Nuts and Bolts of Catch Accounting 

Estimates of catch for the various species that are encountered in Alaska's commercial groundfish fisheries are used by fisheries managers, stock assessment authors, and the public to gain a better understanding of harvest. However, not all data users may be familiar with the mechanics of how these estimates are generated. Because not all fishing activity in Alaska is monitored, NMFS has made decisions that determine what data are used to make catch estimates for unmonitored fishing. In this talk, I will give a mid-level overview of those rules. I will also show how these decisions manifest in terms of the frequency with which different types of fishing activities rely on estimates and the proximity in time and space that data used to produce those estimates come from. The goal of the talk is to illustrate how catch estimates in Alaska are currently generated in order to give data users a better understanding of them. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Phil Ganz 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, April 25, 2023 — Sara Schaal

Sara Schaal Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, April 25th @ 10 am Pacific 

Comparative Genomics of Pacific Cod and Walleye Pollock 

Understanding genomic differentiation between populations of economic and ecological concern can aid researchers and managers in setting biologically relevant management boundaries. In addition, by taking a genomics approach, we can evaluate how species and populations within species are adapting to their environment. Pacific cod and walleye pollock are two commercially important species that have similar population distributions, but vary in their life-history characteristics. Using whole genome low-coverage sequencing, we take a comparative approach to understand and evaluate the population genetic structure of these two species. We show variation between species in both the adaptive landscape and the locations of the dominating population genetic breaks. These results suggest variation in gene flow and/or the strength of divergent selection between the species.

Performing whole genome sequencing on many samples is cost prohibitive and therefore, another aspect of our work is the development and implementation of a panel of markers (GT- seq panel) that can differentiate between the major reporting groups identified with the initial whole genome data. This panel can then be used on thousands of samples to answer a sweet of other research questions. We present the initial panel that we developed for Pacific cod and the ways that we've used it to explore the genetic stock of samples caught outside of the spawning season. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Sara Schaal 2023 Seminar Series

Tuesday, May 2, 2023 — Susanne McDermott and Julie Nielsen

Susanne McDermott and Julie Nielsen Presentation Flyer

Tuesday, May 2nd @ 10 am Pacific 

Examining distributional shifts of spawning and feeding migrations of Pacific cod in Alaska with Satellite popup tags

Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) is a key component of the Eastern Bering Sea ecosystem. Warming in recent years has resulted in dramatic shifts in the distribution of Pacific cod in Alaskan waters. This research represents a collaborative effort between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center groundfish assessment program, Aleutian East Borough, Pacific cod harvesters, Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation and tribal partners. Particular concerns include a northward shift in distribution of Pacific cod from the Eastern Bering Sea to the Northern Bering Sea and seasonal movement between the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea management areas. 

This study examines the changes in seasonal distribution patterns, specifically spawning and feeding migrations, with Satellite popup tags. These tags provide information on the location of the fish at time of popup as well as light, temperature, and depth data. We estimate movement paths with a hidden Markov model (HMM) that enables us to reconstruct the travel paths of individual fish and produce monthly maps of tagged cod distributions. Results from tags released in the summer in the Northern Bering Sea show that fish migrated south to spawn in previously observed spawning locations of the Eastern Bering Sea, suggesting that the Northern Bering Sea summer population is a northward expansion of Eastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod stocks. Results from tags released in the winter in the Western Gulf of Alaska indicate that a high percentage may move north into Bering Sea for the summer, with tagged fish migrating into the Northern Bering sea, Russia, and the Chukchi Sea during the summer months. These northward shifts in Pacific cod distribution and the seasonal movement across management boundaries pose challenges for stock assessment and results from this study have provided valuable information for spatial management of Pacific cod stocks. 

For more information contact:

Abigail McCarthy (Abigail.McCarthy@noaa.gov) or Alexandra Dowlin (Alexandra.Dowlin@noaa.gov)

Webinar Recording- Susanne McDermott and Julie Nielsen 2023 Seminar Series