State of the Physical, Biological and Selected Fishery Resources of Pacific Canadian Marine Ecosystems in 2016 Peter C. Chandler, Stephanie A. King and Jennifer Boldt (Editors) Fisheries & Oceans Canada Institute of Ocean Sciences 9860 West Saanich Rd. Sidney, B.C. V8L 4B2 Canada 2017 Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 3225 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 3225 2017 STATE OF THE PHYSICAL, BIOLOGICAL AND SELECTED FISHERY RESOURCES OF PACIFIC CANADIAN MARINE ECOSYSTEMS IN 2016 by Peter C. Chandler1, Stephanie A. King2 and Jennifer Boldt3 (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 Street 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, 2017. Cat. No. Fs97-6/3225E-PDF ISBN 978-0-660-09251-5 ISSN 1488-5379 Correct citation for this publication: Chandler, P.C., King, S.A., and Boldt, J. (Eds.). 2017. State of the physical, biological and selected fishery resources of Pacific Canadian marine ecosystems in 2016. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3225: 243 + vi p. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents .....................................................................................................................iii Abstract .................................................................................................................................. v Résumé ................................................................................................................................. vi 1. Highlights ................................................................................................................... 1 2. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 2 3. Overview and summary.............................................................................................. 3 4. Acknowledments ........................................................................................................ 7 Individual reports on conditions in the Northeast Pacific and British Columbia’s outer coast ......................................................................................................................................... 9 5. British Columbia hydroclimatological conditions, 2016 (Anslow) ..............................10 6. Wind-driven upwelling/downwelling along the northwest coast of North America: timing and magnitude (Hourston and Thomson) .......................................21 7. Sea level in British Columbia, 1910 to 2016 (Ballantyne) ........................................28 8. La Niña, the Blob and another warmest year (Ross) ...............................................30 9. Patterns of SST variability along the west coast of North America (Hannah) ...........35 10. Sea surface temperature and salinity trends observed at lighthouses and weather buoys in British Columbia, 2016 (Chandler) ...............................................40 11. Oxygen concentration in subsurface waters (Crawford et al.) ..................................45 12. 2016 oceanographic conditions along Line P and the coast of Vancouver Island (Yelland and Robert) .....................................................................................49 13. Coastal monitoring by buoys and satellites (Gower and King) .................................53 14. Phytoplankton in surface waters along Line P and off the west coast of Vancouver Island (Peña and Nemcek) ....................................................................58 15. Lower trophic levels in the Northeast Pacific (Batten) ..............................................63 16. Zooplankton along the B.C. continental margin 2016 (Galbraith and Young) ...........67 17. Northern Abalone (Haliotis Kamtschatkana) abundance in .......................................... British Columbia (Curtis) .........................................................................................76 18. Eulachon status and trends in B.C. (MacConnachie et al.) ......................................80 19. Pacific Herring in British Columbia, 2016 (Cleary et al.) ..........................................84 20. 2016 pelagic ecosystem acoustic survey in the Strait of Georgia (Guan et al.) ........89 21. WCVI multi-species small-mesh bottom trawl surveys (target species smooth pink shrimp): 2016 update (Perry et al.) ..................................................................93 22. A review of groundfish surveys in 2016 (Workman) .................................................97 23. 2016 summer growth index of juvenile Coho Salmon captured off WCVI in the fall was below average (King and Baillie) .............................................................. 105 24. Sockeye Salmon indicator stocks – Regional overview of trends, 2016 returns, and 2017-2018 outlook (Hyatt et al.) ..................................................................... 110 iii 25. Humpback whales, harbour seals and Steller sea lions in British Columbia: population trends of formerly harvested marine mammals (Nichol et al.) ............... 115 26. Nearshore fish and seabird population trends in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve of Canada (Yakimishyn and Zharikov) .................................................... 122 27. Observations on seabirds along the outer B.C. coast (Hipfner) ............................ 129 28. Seabirds exposure to plastic and oil pollution (O’Hara) ......................................... 131 Individual reports on inside waters (including the Strait of Georgia) ............................... 139 29. Weather driven dynamics of pluvial watersheds on the central coast of British Columbia (Calvert Island) from 2013 to 2016 (Giesbrecht et al.) ........................... 140 30. Hakai Oceanography Program: British Columbia Central Coast time series (2012-2016) (Hunt et al.) ....................................................................................... 145 31. Carbonate system time series of the northern Salish Sea (Hare et al.) .................. 151 32. Temperature and salinity observations in the Strait of Georgia and Juan de Fuca Strait in 2016 (Chandler) .............................................................................. 155 33. Deep water and sea surface properties in the Strait of Georgia during 2016: