Seacat data in southeast Alaska in April and May 2011

Ecosystems & Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI) is an effort by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and associated academic scientists. Eco-FOCI’s goal is to understand the effects of abiotic and biotic variability on ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. This cruise is in support of research sponsored by NOAA’s North Pacific Climate Regimes & Ecosystem Productivity Program, the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), and PMEL/AFSC base. The research conducted on this cruise is part of the NPRB’s Gulf of Alaska- Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (GOA-IERP) Lower Trophic Level Project (LTL) component. The Program intends to increase our understanding of how five target fish taxa (walleye pollock, Pacific cod, arrowtooth flounder, sablefish, and Pacific Ocean perch) pass through the larval gauntlet and eventually recruit as adults. The Lower Trophic Level Component is one of four major components to the overall project (Lower Trophic Levels, Middle Trophic Levels, Upper Trophic level, Modeling. An additional major goals of the overall project s to compare and contrast the mechanisms responsible for recruitment of fish species between the eastern and northern portions of the Gulf of Alaska. While many mechanisms controlling on shelf and cross-shelf fluxes in the two regions are likely similar, we expect there are also distinct differences between the narrow shelf of EGOA and the broader down welling dominated shelf of WGOA. Our three primary objectives for each region are to quantify, compare and contrast (1) the timing and magnitude of the different cross-shelf exchange mechanisms, using an extensive suite of oceanographic (i.e. moorings, drifters, cruises) and atmospheric measurements, (2) how these physical mechanisms influence the distribution, timing and magnitude of phytoplankton productivity, and (3) how both transport and primary productivity control the distribution, productivity, and fate of both zooplankton and ichthyoplankton.