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Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan

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Overview of the Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan North Pacific Fishery Management Council Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan writing team Kerim Aydin, NMFS AFSC Ecosystem/food web modeling Steve Barbeaux, NMFS AFSC Pollock biology, assessment Forrest Bowers, ADF&G Crab and state fisheries Vernon Byrd, USFWS, AKRO Birds and mammals Diana Evans, NPFMC FEP policy, implementation Sarah Gaichas, NMFS AFSC Ecosystem/food web modeling Carol Ladd, NOAA PMEL Physical oceanography Sandra Lowe, NMFS AFSC Atka mackerel biology, assessment John Olson, NMFS AKRO Habitat, GIS Jennifer Sepez, NMFS AFSC Anthropology, socioeconomics Paul Spencer, NMFS AFSC Rockfish biology, assessment Francis Wiese, NPRB Research, seabirds Abbreviations AFSC - Alaska Fisheries Science Center ADF&G - Alaska Department of Fish and Game AI - Aleutian Islands AKRO - Alaska Regional Office ESA - Endangered Species Act FEP - Fishery Ecosystem Plan GIS - Geographic Information Systems NMFS - National Marine Fisheries Service NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NPFMC - North Pacific Fishery Management Council NPRB - North Pacific Research Board PMEL - Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory USFWS - US Fish and Wildlife Service Cover photo credits Background: Aleutian arch, NOAA–Auke Bay Laboratories Insets top to bottom: auklets, Ian Jones; Atka mackerel, Alaska Sea Life Center; Steller sea lion, Alison Banks; crab pot, Kimberly Rand; bubble gum coral, Alberto Lindner, NMFS, NOAA Below: cod and coral, NOAA–Auke Bay Laboratories NOAA-Auke Bay LaboratoriesNOAA-Auke Steve Barbeaux, AFSC, NOAA AFSC, Steve Barbeaux, This brochure provides a brief summary of information Foreword found in the Aleutian Islands The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has Fishery Ecosystem Plan. developed the Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) as a pilot project. With national attention A disc containing the document on fishery managers to apply an ecosystem approach in its entirety is included on the to management, the Council is continually adapting its back page of this summary. management to better accommodate ecosystem rela- tionships and strive for ecological balance. Consistent with this, the Council has designed a FEP that is rel- evant and applicable to Alaskan fishery management. The Aleutian Island ecosystem is complex, and is the least predictable of the ecosystems in which the Contents Council manages. The FEP is intended to be an Fishery Ecosystem Plan 4 educational tool and resource that can provide the Council with both an ‘early warning system,’ and an Ecosystem Boundary 5 ecosystem context for fishery management decisions History of the AI Ecosystem 6 affecting the Aleutian Islands area. This document Physical Relationships 8 should help the Council respond to changing Biological Relationships 10 conditions in a proactive rather than reactive mode. Socioeconomic Relationships 14 The FEP is to be a living document, in which ecosys- Management Relationships 17 tem interactions, indicator status, research priorities, Risk Assessment 18 and data gaps are periodically updated. This first Priorities and Considerations 20 iteration of the FEP has been prepared by synthesiz- Next Steps 22 ing currently available information about the Aleutian CD 23 Islands ecosystem. While the Council recognizes that the FEP is a work in progress, the document can immediately be used to improve management action analyses, and to provide a broader understanding of actions affecting the Aleutian Islands ecosystem. Additionally, through the identification of indicators and the assessment of risk, the FEP provides directions and priorities for further study. 3 R U S S I A G.L. Thomson G.L. center: Fisheries NOAA USFWS Kevinright: Bell, What is a Fishery Ecosystem Plan? The goal of this FEP is to provide enhanced scientifi c information and measurable indicators to evaluate and promote ecosystem health, sustainable fi sheries, and vibrant communities in the Aleutian Islands region. FEP h a bi FEP Concept for Alaska* t a t e t n Policy and planning document. a SSSA m p i SSSA r l e n c d Encompasses all fi sheries in the Aleutian a State SSSA t Islands ecosystem. o r Fisheries s s y e r p n Implementation of specifi c changes to management continues to occur through Fi lan existing fi shery management plan processes. she t P ry Managemen n FEP is not a legal, binding document — it is an educational tool for the Council, to provide an ecosystem context for fi shery management. h h a b a b i it t a a * Other regions may have a different concept t t and goals. e e t t a a SSSA SSSA m p m p i SSSA i SSSA r r l l e e c c d d a a t t SSSA SSSA o o r Purposes r s s s s y y e e r r p p n Integrate information from the F Fi is n different Aleutian Islands fi shery she lan her la ry M nt P y Ma ent P management plans (groundfi sh, crab, anageme nagem scallop, salmon). Communities n Identify indicators specifi c to the Aleutian Islands, to evaluate the status of the ecosystem over time. Other activities Oil & Gas Shipping n Develop and refi ne tools such as affecting the marine ecosystem ecosystem models. n Identify sources of uncertainty and research and data needs. Military n Help the Council set management goals and understand cumulative effects. Scope of Fishery Ecosystem Plan 4 SSSA Single species stock assessment Ecosystem Boundary R U S S For the purposes of this Fishery Ecosystem Plan, I A the Aleutian Islands ecosystem is defi ned as the portion of the archipelago ranging from Samalga Pass (at 169ºW) to the western boundary of the exclusive economic zone, at 170ºE. Samalga Pass represents a known ecological boundary with the A L A S K A neighboring eastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ecosystems. This boundary is also approximately C A N A D A similar to an important management boundary for the Federal groundfi sh fi shery. Ale uti an Isla nds h a bi t a t e t a SSSA m p i SSSA r l e c d a SSSA t o r s y e r p F is n her Pla y Management Stalemate NIKOLSKI Bank ATTU ATKA Al SHEMYA Petrel eu Samalga tia Bank n Pass Tre nch ADAK Amukta Seguam Pass Buldir Atka Pass Strait Tanaga Pass Amchitka Pass Pass 5 left and center: Photo NOAA Library UniversityAlaska Rasmuson Fairbanks, of UAF-1970-11-2 Library, History of the AI Ecosystem Human history of the Aleutians Aleuts have been present in the Aleutian archipel- ago for 10,000 years. At one time, there were over 100 villages in the islands, reflecting complex and flexible settlement patterns as people followed fish and marine mammal migrations. Russian contact Estimated population trend of the Aleutian archipelago in 1741 brought profound social change to the Aleuts, and considerable population decline due to epidemic, violent conflict, forced resettlement and impressed labor practices. Russian and American interests pursued the rich Aleutian marine resources over the next 150 years. Population shifts occurred again with the advent of World War II, and the stationing of substantial US military forces in the islands. The US govern- ment forcibly evacuated the remaining eight Aleut villages in the archipelago, which after the war were resettled into half that many villages (Atka 1740 1790 1840 1890 1940 1990 being the only one in the ecosystem). The military Year remained a presence through the decades of the Cold War, before scaling back almost entirely in the 1990s. The development of a global fishing industry began to affect Aleutian populations starting in the late 1960s. Historic catch of major groundfish species Catch as % biomassof 6 Year Commercial resource use, 1740-2005 1977 Magnuson Act 200 mi EEZ 1990 Fully U.S. fishing fleet 160,000 1975 Marine Mammal Russians sail to Protection Act Commander Islands; Russians American Co. conscript Aleut hunters controls fur trade 140,000 for fur trade 1799-1857 pollock International fleet whaling peaks Russians settlement in mackerel 120,000 Kodiak and Pribilofs, Koniag hunters U.S. purchases marine American whaling in Large scale foreign conscripted and Aleuts Gulf of Alaska & eastern Alaska 1867 mammals relocated fisheries begin 100,000 Aleutians. Bowhead hunted in rockfish arctic 1850-1890 American whaling; stations at Akutan 80,000 sea otter depleted 1912-39 crab in Aleutians; spectacled 1911 sea otter Metric tons sea cow extinct comorant hunting banned cod extinct WWII: 60,000 Japanese invade; pelagics Arctic fox pelagic Aleuts introduced sealing 40,000 sea otter forcibly flatfish depleted in peaks relocated peninsula Panama Canal other species 20,000 Cook maps AK, opens fur trade opened with Canton 1740 1760 1780 1800 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 (modified from Ortiz, I. 2007. Ecosystem Dynamics of the Aleutian Islands. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Washington, Seattle.) Some early (pre-1950) biomass removals do not show up at this scale: n An estimated 500,000 sea otters were removed from the Aleutian archipelago and the far western Gulf of Alaska between 1742 and 1792, which averages to approximately 250 tons of otters annually over this period. n Salmon catch records show intermittent catches from 1911 through 1927 ranging from 24 to 1800 tons annually. n Kelp forests support a diverse marine community, important for fish and nearshore birds. Historical relationships illustrate ecosystem connections n Sea otters prey on sea urchins, which eat kelp and sea otters – kelp forests – marine communities prevent forests from growing. n As kelp sites have been recolonized by recovering sea otter populations in the 20th century, kelp forests have increased. n Recent sea otter declines will likely continue to have derivative impacts. Dr. Randall Davis, Texas A&M University Texas Randall Davis, Dr.
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