State of the Physical, Biological and Selected Fishery Resources of Pacific Canadian Marine Ecosystems in 2014
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State of the Physical, Biological and Selected Fishery Resources of Pacific Canadian Marine Ecosystems in 2014 Peter C. Chandler, Stephanie A. King and R. Ian Perry (Editors) Fisheries & Oceans Canada Institute of Ocean Sciences 9860 West Saanich Rd. Sidney, B.C. V8L 4B2 Canada 2015 Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 3131 Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Technical reports contain scientific and technical information that contributes to existing knowledge but which is not normally appropriate for primary literature. Technical reports are directed primarily toward a worldwide audience and have an international distribution. No restriction is placed on subject matter and the series reflects the broad interests and policies of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, namely, fisheries and aquatic sciences. Technical reports may be cited as full publications. The correct citation appears above the abstract of each report. 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Les demandes de rapports seront satisfaites par l'établissement auteur dont le nom figure sur la couverture et la page du titre. Les numéros 1 à 456 de cette série ont été publiés à titre de Rapports techniques de l'Office des recherches sur les pêcheries du Canada. Les numéros 457 à 714 sont parus à titre de Rapports techniques de la Direction générale de la recherche et du développement, Service des pêches et de la mer, ministère de l'Environnement. Les numéros 715 à 924 ont été publiés à titre de Rapports techniques du Service des pêches et de la mer, ministère des Pêches et de l'Environnement. Le nom actuel de la série a été établi lors de la parution du numéro 925. Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 3131 2015 STATE OF THE PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND SELECTED FISHERY RESOURCES OF PACIFIC CANADIAN MARINE ECOSYSTEMS IN 2014 by Peter C. Chandler1, Stephanie A. King2 and R. Ian Perry3 (Editors) 1Fisheries & Oceans Canada Institute of Ocean Sciences 9860 West Saanich Road Sidney, B.C. V8L 4B2 Canada [email protected] 2Sea This Consulting 1814 Bay Steet Nanaimo, B.C. V9T 3A2 Canada [email protected] 3Fisheries & Oceans Canada Pacific Biological Station 3190 Hammond Bay Road Nanaimo, B.C. V9T 6N7 Canada [email protected] i © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, 2015, as represented by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. Cat. No. Fs97-6/3131E-PDF ISBN 978-0-660-02315-1 ISSN 1488-5379 Correct citation for this publication: Chandler, P.C., King, S.A., and Perry, R.I. (Eds.). 2015. State of the physical, biological and selected fishery resources of Pacific Canadian marine ecosystems in 2014. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3131: vi + 211 p. ii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... v Résumé .......................................................................................................................vi 1. Highlights .............................................................................................................. 1 2. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 4 3. Overview and Summary ....................................................................................... 4 Individual reports on conditions in the Northeast Pacific ....................................... 15 4. Global temperature in 2014 (Crawford) .............................................................. 17 5. Northeast Pacific Ocean: Warmest ever in 2014 and early 2015 (Crawford) ..... 19 6. The “Blob” or Argo and other views of a large anomaly in the Gulf of Alaska in 2014/15 (Freeland) ....................................................................................... 25 7. Winds, waves and SST from West Coast Weather Buoys (Gower) .................... 30 8. 2014 Conditions along Line P and the coast of Vancouver Island (Yelland and Robert) ........................................................................................ 35 9. Impacts of the 2013-2014 warm anomaly on phytoplankton biomass in the NE Pacific (Whitney) ......................................................................................... 40 10. Offshore plankton indices from Continuous Plankton Recorder sampling (Batten) ............................................................................................................. 44 11. Fraser River Sockeye diversion rate; 2014 the highest on record (Lapoint et al.) ................................................................................................... 48 Individual reports on the outer British Columbia Coast .......................................... 55 12. Wind-driven upwelling/downwelling along the northwest coast of North America: magnitude and timing (Hourston and Thomson) ............................... 57 13. Sea level in British Columbia, 1910 to 2014 (Ballantyne) ................................... 64 14. Interannual variability of sea level at Tofino (Gower) .......................................... 66 15. Sea surface temperature and salinity trends observed at lighthouses and weather buoys in British Columbia, 2014 (Chandler) ........................................ 68 16. Trends in oxygen concentration on the B.C. shelf (Crawford) ............................ 73 17. The 2014 Perspective from Ocean Networks Canada (Dewey et al.) ................. 75 18. Phytoplankton in the waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island (Peña and Nemcek) .......................................................................................... 81 19. Zooplankton along the B.C. continental margin 2014, and the impacts of warm offshelf waters (Galbraith et al.) .............................................................. 85 20. West coast of Vancouver Island Pelagic Ecosystem Night Trawl Survey (Flostrand et al.) ............................................................................................... 93 21. Eulachon Status and trends in B.C. (Boldt et al.) .............................................. 100 22. Pacific Herring in British Columbia, 2014 (Cleary et al.) ................................... 103 iii 23. 2014 Growth of Juvenile Coho Salmon off WCVI the highest on record since 1998 (Trudel et al.) ................................................................................ 110 24. Small-mesh bottom-trawl surveys west of Vancouver Island: update for 2014 (Perry et al.) ........................................................................................... 114 25. Sockeye Salmon indicator stocks – Regional overview of trends, 2014 returns, and 2015-2016 outlook (Hyatt et al.) ................................................. 119 26. Geographic and seasonal distribution of humpback, fin and blue whales off southwestern Vancouver Island (Nichol and Ford) .................................... 124 27. Observations on seabirds along the outer coast (Hipfner) ................................ 130 Individual reports on inside waters (including the Strait of Georgia) ................... 133 28. Central Coast Ocean conditions: Hakai Institute (Hunt and Wang) .................. 135 29. Oxygen in Douglas Channel, July 2013 – July 2014 (Johannessen) ................ 139 30. Fresh water and Fraser River flow (Gower and Chandler) ............................... 143 31. Temperature and salinity observations in the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait (Chandler) ............................................................................... 147 32. Spring phytoplankton bloom in the Strait of Georgia, 2014 and 2015 (Allen and Latornell) ....................................................................................... 151 33. Timing of The spring phytoplankton bloom in the Strait of Georgia based on analysis of MODIS-Aqua images (Carswell et al.) ....................................