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Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, abundance and body condition in Prince William Sound

Mayumi L. Arimitsu·John F. Piatt·Scott Hatch·Caitlin Elizabeth Marsteller·Daniel Stephen Donnelly·Shannon Whelan
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Abstract

Identifying drivers of change in forage fish populations is key to understanding recovery potential for piscivorous species injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and ecosystem response to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. Forage fish are small pelagic schooling fish such as Pacific capelin (Mallotus catervarius), Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), and juvenile walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) that are prey of many marine predators. Krill (Euphausiidae) are also an important prey taxa sampled in this study. The goals of the Gulf Watch Alaska forage fish monitoring project are to provide information on the population trends of forage species in the Gulf of Alaska and to better understand how underlying predator-prey interactions influence recovering species and the pelagic ecology of Prince William Sound. The main sampling components of the program include acoustic-trawl surveys for forage fish in Prince William Sound during the Fall Integrated Predator-Prey survey (September), and seabird diet sampling at Middleton Island during spring/summer (April – August). We also validate aerial surveys conducted by the Herring Research and Monitoring program (June), and sample summer spawning capelin and sand lance (July) for condition analyses. This work has provided information important to understanding ecosystem response to perturbations in the northern Gulf of Alaska.

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90° N90° S · 180° W ← longitude → 180° E
Source-reported bounding extent: 56.73795316549365° to 61.7395810933933° latitude; -151.12243096735082° to -141.4324895611008° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, Scott Hatch, Caitlin Elizabeth Marsteller, Daniel Stephen Donnelly, Shannon Whelan. 2023. Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, abundance and body condition in Prince William Sound. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70251104

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Factors affecting benthic macroinvertebrate health in the City of Roanoke, Virginia, 2020–2023

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