Kodiak Aleutians RAC Transcripts September 27 2019
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KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 9/27/2019 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS RAC MEETING 2 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE REGIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING PUBLIC MEETING VOLUME II Cold Bay Community Center Cold Bay, Alaska September 27, 2019 8:45 a.m. COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Della Trumble, Chair Coral Chernoff Patrick Holmes Richard Koso Christopher Price Antone Shelikoff Rebecca Skinner - (Telephone) Regional Council Coordinator, Donald Mike Recorded and transcribed by: Computer Matrix Court Reporters, LLC 135 Christensen Drive, Suite 2 Anchorage, AK 99501 907-243-0668/[email protected] Computer Matrix, LLC Phone: 907-243-0668 135 Christensen Dr., Ste. 2., Anch. AK 99501 Fax: 907-243-1473 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 9/27/2019 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS RAC MEETING 2 Page 146 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 3 (Cold Bay, Alaska - 9/27/2019) 4 5 (On record) 6 7 MADAME CHAIR TRUMBLE: Okay, good 8 morning everyone. We'll reconvene our meeting. The 9 time is about, we'll say 8:45. And the first item on 10 the agenda is NOAA; Ellen. 11 12 (Pause) 13 14 MADAME CHAIR TRUMBLE: And just to do a 15 check before we get started, can everybody on line hear 16 us okay? 17 18 MS. SKINNER: Yes, I can hear you. 19 20 MADAME CHAIR TRUMBLE: Okay, thank you. 21 22 MS. SKINNER: And if you could just 23 note Rebecca Skinner is present. 24 25 MADAME CHAIR TRUMBLE: Okay, thank you, 26 Rebecca. Good morning. 27 28 MS. SKINNER: Good morning. 29 30 MS. YASUMIISHI: Should I go ahead. 31 32 REPORTER: Yes. 33 34 MS. YASUMIISHI: Good morning, Madame 35 Chair, and Members of the Council. My name is Ellen 36 Yasumiishi. I work for NOAA Fisheries in Juneau, 37 Alaska since 1995. I'm a research fishery biologist 38 specializing in marine ecosystem studies. About a 39 third of my time I spend as editor of the Ecosystem 40 Status Report with Stephani Zador and Elizabeth Siddon. 41 We produce a report every year, available on this 42 website below. We have a report for the Aleutians, 43 Arctic, Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, and we 44 compile ecosystem information from multiple agencies 45 and compile land synthesis and report to Councils on 46 the status of fish and birds, mammals and other ocean 47 conditions, and we have also some human indicators. 48 49 Here's a list of the categories in our 50 Computer Matrix, LLC Phone: 907-243-0668 135 Christensen Dr., Ste. 2., Anch. AK 99501 Fax: 907-243-1473 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 9/27/2019 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS RAC MEETING 2 Page 147 1 report. 2 3 We also are expanding so we'd love to 4 hear from you on relevant and time series for your 5 Council as well. 6 7 Today I'm going to focus on-- tell you 8 a little bit about our current surveys in the Arctic, 9 Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska just briefly and then 10 talk about the 2019 sea temperatures that we're seeing 11 in the Gulf of Alaska. Also talk about feeding 12 conditions for juvenile salmon and provide some 13 information on our salmon survival information from 14 Southeast Alaska and Western Gulf of Alaska and then 15 talk about the implications of the 2019 incoming 16 heatwave. 17 18 So in the Arctic, this was part of a 19 grant project from North Pacific Research Board, we're 20 sampling oceanography and fish in the Chuckchi Sea, 21 this year was our last survey and it was very warm and 22 we also caught many age year old pollock, which was 23 unexpected. They typically are distributed in the 24 Bering Sea and not the Chuckchi Sea. Information on 25 our plankton show that the krill abundances were low as 26 well as low large copepod abundances. And those are 27 important prey for forage fish in the area. 28 29 In our Bering Sea surveys listed here 30 this year we were in the north. We alternate years in 31 the Southeast Bering Sea with the Gulf of Alaska. It 32 was, again, warm,we caught a lot of herring which is 33 typical for one years, very few capeland. We had low 34 catches of juvenile salmon, but high catches of 35 juvenile pink and sockeye in the Northern Bering Sea. 36 We haven't done genetic analysis on the sockeye yet, 37 but we assume those are Bristol Bay fish, and that was 38 an unusual event this year. Also low abundances of 39 krill and large copepods. 40 41 So these show the Gulf of Alaska 42 surveys. The one in the Eastern Gulf, we've monitored 43 the inside waters of Southeast Alaska since 1997 and 44 then also around Kodiak, on the shelf, we have a spring 45 survey and a summer survey for fish. We also saw 46 conditions were very warm, I'll touch a little bit more 47 on that. Low catches of larval fish in the spring and 48 fall. But a lot of jellyfish. So that was the unusual 49 aspect of this year as well as low krill and large 50 Computer Matrix, LLC Phone: 907-243-0668 135 Christensen Dr., Ste. 2., Anch. AK 99501 Fax: 907-243-1473 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 9/27/2019 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS RAC MEETING 2 Page 148 1 copepods so we're seeing region-wide trends and low 2 production. 3 4 We also had a survey, an international 5 survey as part of the international year of the salmon 6 with the North Pacific Anadramous Fish Commission and 7 this is a joint effort with Russia, Canada, Korea and 8 Japan. We'll have another survey in 2021. So this 9 survey was out in the Gulf of Alaska in February and 10 March and the focus is on salmon to identify what 11 stocks are out there and how healthy the fish are and 12 where they are. So results from the last winter 13 survey, our catches were lower than expected. The coho 14 were offshore and we caught very few chinook and pink 15 salmon. The chum salmon were a little skinny and the 16 sockeye, of which some were from Bristol Bay, they were 17 overlapping well with their krill prey, their primary 18 prey. 19 20 I'll switch to talking a little bit 21 about sea temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska. In the 22 map up in the left corner it shows the green area of 23 this time series and the entire Gulf of Alaska this was 24 the warmest year -- warmest summer sea surface 25 temperatures that date back to 1900. 26 27 Around Kodiak, we also have a seasonal 28 time series estimate of temperature that we put 29 together, Steve Barbeaux has put together as an index 30 for marine heatwaves. So the cycle is the seasonal 31 cycle, the lower values are in winter and the higher 32 values are in summertime. And the yellow area are an 33 indication of above average, well above average 34 temperatures so it shows the warm winter in 2015/16 and 35 then the warm summers in '14, '15 and '16, and then 36 again the warm winter last year as well as this 37 warming, very warm summer, so an indication that we're 38 going back into another heatwave. 39 40 So our surveys around Kodiak, we have 41 temperature profiles at the surface and through the 42 water column, to the bottom. The spring temperatures 43 were not as warm as our last marine heatwave, and we 44 only sample this area every other year so we only have 45 the odd years represented here. At depth, it was as 46 warm as the 2015 heatwave, 6.1 degrees celsius on 47 average. In August our summer sea surface temperatures 48 were as warm as -- they continued to warm and they were 49 as warm as the last marine heatwave with degrees on 50 Computer Matrix, LLC Phone: 907-243-0668 135 Christensen Dr., Ste. 2., Anch. AK 99501 Fax: 907-243-1473 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS SUBSISTENCE RAC MEETING 9/27/2019 KODIAK/ALEUTIANS RAC MEETING 2 Page 149 1 average of 13.3 degrees, but it shows that inside 2 Shelikoff they were warmer than the 13 degree values. 3 4 Down to the bottom of the sea floor it 5 was much warmer than the 2015 marine heatwave with an 6 average temperature of 7.3 degree celsius and we were 7 seeing the hot spots of temperatures 10 degree and plus 8 on the outside of Kodiak Island on the shelf. 9 10 So what were the feeding conditions 11 like for our juvenile salmon coming out of the rivers. 12 This is a bar chart showing the diets of salmon in the 13 Gulf of Alaska. Chinook and coho are feeding primarily 14 on fish while the juvenile sockeye and chum adult pinks 15 and juvenile pink feed on more of a variety of species 16 including krill, and the large copepods as well as 17 jellyfish, the cyplapods and the terapods, the 18 anthapods. We do have indices of copepods and krills 19 from around Kodiak, a long time series that goes back 20 to the 1990s. And our assessment from the spring 21 survey shows that we are in a -- kind of a phase of low 22 copepod densities in the springtime.