NOAA informed that a group of scientists have departed on a pioneering expedition to the Beaufort Sea. Doug DeMaster, Director of NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told that the expedition will be NOAA’s first dedicated scientific expedition focusing on fish in the Beaufort. He also said that the expedition will clarify 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.
According to DeMaster this expedition will also provide scientific data for the Arctic Fisheries Management Plan currently under development by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. He opined that in this expedition the scientists will be assessing the distribution and abundance of fish, using both bottom trawls and acoustic surveys. Using bongo nets, they will sample for zooplankton. Probes will measure the salinity and temperature of the water.
It is told that the chartered fishing vessel Ocean Explorer will carry the expedition, leaving Dutch Harbour. There is a total of six scientists will be working on the Ocean Explorer, which also carries a crew of six. Scientists Logerwall said that this is a once-in-a-lifetime research cruise, a fascinating scientific journey to collect information in an area that has never been surveyed before.
The expedition is funded by the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior. Scientists expect the bottom trawl surveys to 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.
