For North Pacific Fisheries Management Council

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Pacific; Sea ice; Subarctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.348.3269; http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/PDFdocuments/rural_outreach/NBSRA_DiscPap_912.pdf

As a changing climate warms waters of the North Pacific and changes the timing of the ice cover in the northern Bering Sea, an ecosystem shift is expected that may extend the distribution of crab and fish populations northward into the subarctic Regions. In anticipation of commercially important stocks shifting northward, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) established the Northern Bering Sea Research Area (NBSRA) in 2008. This area is closed to nonpelagic (bottom) trawling pending understanding of its impacts on the near-pristine ecosystem. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) was charged with developing a Research Plan to investigate the impacts of nonpelagic trawling in the NBSRA. The remoteness, harsh climate and extended periods of ice cover in the NBS have long deterred commercial fishing. Historically, there has been very low levels of nonpelagic trawling and consequently almost no knowledge of fisheries potential, benthic habitat, and trawl impacts. In 2010, funded by the NOAA Loss of Sea Ice (LOSI) program to understand the impacts of ocean warming on the ecosystem, the AFSC annual summer bottom-trawl survey in the eastern Bering Sea was extended into the NBS. Survey results indicate that essentially the only groundfish species with any commercial nonpelagic fishery potential in the NBS is the yellowfin sole Limanda aspera. Recent data also cast doubt on whether and which groundfish species might migrate northward, and revealed high uncertainty in predicting ecosystem trends.