2022 Gulf of Alaska Coral Settlement Plate Recovery and Deployment
May 16, 2022
In June 2022 we will surveying from Elfin Cove, Alaska on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game research vessel R/V Solstice. Researchers will proceed to Fairweather Ground to retrieve 4 ARMS plates placed in 2013 and deploy 5 new ARMS.
Who is conducting the research?
Scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and Tjärnö Marine Laboratory University of Gothenburg Sweden with support from the Deep Sea Coral Research and Technology Program and North Pacific Research Board.
What is the research objective?
The goals of this project are three-fold:
a) to investigate recruitment processes in the dominant deep water coral species in the Alaska region, Primnoa pacifica (red tree coral), utilizing Artificial Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) that were dropped in two locations in 2013;
b) to investigate fertilization and larval kinetics in Primnoa pacifica collected from the populations around the ARMS;
c) to investigate a suite of other Alaskan deep sea corals and sponges for basic reproductive ecology, utilizing collections in museums and from the annual Alaska Fisheries Science Center bottom trawl groundfish surveys.