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• Main Authors: Southeastern Bering Sea, James H. Churnside, Evelyn D. Brown, Sandra Parker-stetter, John K. Horne, George L. Hunt, Nicola Hillgruber, Michael F. Sigler, Johanna J. Vollenweider
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Bering Canyon; Bering Sea; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.644.9137; http://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/3/3/621/remotesensing-03-00621-pdf-vor.pdf

Abstract: Intense, ephemeral foraging events within localized hot spots represent important trophic transfers to top predators in marine ecosystems, though the spatial extent and temporal overlap of predators and prey are difficult to observe using traditional methods. The southeastern Bering Sea has high marine productivity along the shelf break, especially near marine canyons. At a hot spot located near Bering Canyon, we observed three foraging events over a 12 day period in June 2005. These were located by aerial surveys, quantified by airborne lidar and visual counts, and characterized by ship-based acoustics and net catches. Because of the high density of seabirds, the events could be seen in images from space-based synthetic aperture radar. The events developed at the shelf slope, adjacent to passes between the Aleutian Islands, persisted for 1 to 8 days, then abruptly disappeared. Build-up and break down of the events occurred on 24 hr time scales, and diameters ranged from 10 to 20 km. These events comprised large concentrations of