A group of northern-oriented marine scientists is expected to depart on a pioneering expedition to the Beaufort Sea. Doug DeMaster, Director of NOAA‘s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, informed that this will be NOAA’s first dedicated scientific expedition focusing on fish in the Beaufort. He also said that the expedition will unearth many currently unknown facts about fish and fish habitat in the Arctic, laying a baseline for further scientific expeditions to track changes in the ecosystem. He added that it will also provide scientific data for the Arctic Fisheries Management Plan currently under development by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
According to NOAA the scientists will be assessing the distribution and abundance of fish, using both bottom trawls and acoustic surveys. They will be using bongo nets for sample for zooplankton. Probes will measure the salinity and temperature of the water. The expedition will be carried on by the chartered fishing vessel Ocean Explorer on July 30th and returning on August 30th.
Elizabeth (Libby) Logerwell, one of the scientists of the expedition, told that this is an important research cruise, a fascinating scientific journey to collect information in an area that has never been surveyed before. It is said that the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior is funding the study. According to the scientists the bottom trawl surveys will reveal facts about the distribution and abundance of adult and juvenile demersal fish and their dominant benthic invertebrate prey in offshore habitats from about 20 meters deep to the Beaufort Sea shelf break.
NOAA also told that plankton tows will collect samples needed to quantify the species composition, abundance and biomass of the zooplankton prey available to the fish. Scientists will also record marine mammal observations and make formal transects for sea birds daily as the Ocean Explorer travels from Dutch Harbor to the Beaufort Sea and back.
