Alaska, with more than 7000 miles of coastline, is the major oceanic State, and also the
only State with an arctic region. Yet these waters are undergoing major changes, some of
which might well be irreversible, and changes in climate are taking place at twice the rate as
seen at lower latitudes. We may well be reaching a tipping point—that is, changes so great
that the resiliency of the system cannot return it to the previous state regardless of a reversal
of the change. Predictions based on numerous models have by and large underestimated the
trajectory, and warming and loss of sea ice are happening much faster than expected.
The changes affect not only the waters themselves, but also the global climate. The global
atmospheric circulation is driven by the difference in temperature and therefore pressure
between the low latitudes and the polar, along with the Coriolis force. Since the arctic is
warming twice as fast as the lower latitudes, this difference is being reduced, with inevitable
and, at present, unpredictable consequences.
I suppose that all marine environments are fascinating, but I have found the waters off
Alaska more so. For example, the Aleutians have a special magic. Gorgeous and sparkly
when the weather is clear, but more often eerie and mysterious, shrouded in fog.. Even
when suffering the extreme discomfort of trying to work on deck during a major storm on
the Bering Sea, a glimmering of the romance of these wild seas intrudes, and brings me
back to going to sea, or has done so in the past.
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Here is an example. It was just a casual day of exploration. I was taking part in a
reenactment of the Harriman Expedition of 1899. This was one of many expeditions to
Alaskan seas, from Bering (who, through Stellar made the first scientific observation,)
through Captain Cook’s 3rd voyage, and numerous other lesser known explorers, mostly
seeking a northwest or east passage. This was a different kind of expedition; Let me give
just a little background. Edward H. Harriman, the industrialist and railroad man, was not in
good health, and his doctor suggested that he take time off to rest. So what he did was
arrange to have a ship converted, signed
up the best scientists, naturalists, artist, poets etc. a bit lie Noah’s ark, except that they didn’t
come in pairs. The ship was the Geo. W. Elder. They sailed from the Pacific Northwest
through southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, Gulf of Alaska and up through the Bering
Sea, covering a thousand miles over a two-month period. Participants included John Muir,
John Burroughs, C. Hart Merriam, Edward Curtis and many other well-known names.
As Charles Keeler, the original expedition ornithologist and poet put it:
So blue, to gently glide
Mid islets forested, past shores that stand,
Dark portals opening to enchantment’s land,
Where all is but a dream, soon to be
Lost in the purple mist of memory
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Our vessel was the Clipper Odyssey. The aim of the reenactment was not only to pay a
centennial revisit to the places and look at the changes over the 100-year period, but also to
return many items that had been taken away by the original expedition, many residing in the
Smithsonian. Repatriation. Dr. Thomas S. Liitwin of the Clark Science Center, Smith
College, organized it. And Florentine Films recorded it in a documentary. We had the
privilege of visiting three coastal villages on Chukotka on the Russian side of the Bering
Sea, before crossing to Nome to disembark.
Anyway, here we were anchored off the southeast coast of St. Matthew Island, and the
Captain invited me to join him in a small boat to explore the coastline. We ran across this
wrecked ship, apparently from Germany. We did not get too near due to concerns about the
ship’s stability, but you can see the ladder coming down, bringing visions of the crew
abandoning the ship. I don’t know what year this wreck happened, but in the foggy Bering
Sea weather it was a little eerie. St. Matthews is a particularly interesting island. Never
inhabited. In cold years, polar bears used to get stranded here occasionally. Amazing bird
colonies. You never know what you will find around the corner! A fascinating and beautiful
island.
Let’s take a brief look at the seas and oceans of Alaska. The waters in our marine areas are
all linked by complex current systems that transport properties such as salinity, temperature,
plant nutrients and so on. The marine realms have played a huge role in the history of
Alaska, and continue to influence the economics and life style of many, especially the
coastal residents.. Infinitely wild and intriguing, these seas and oceans also play a major
role in global processes as well as in human life. Along their shores, they extend from
Pacific Northwest Rain Forest to the arctic wet tundra of the far north coast. Yet widespread
recognition of the significance of these waters is only just emerging, as we enter what some
have called “the Age of the Arctic.”
These seas had, until recent decades, been poorly studied. Accessibility was a problem,
especially in the Arctic. The tools were not yet available. Now, we have an array of tools,
satellites, gliders, auvs, moored instruments, drifters, etc. We even have the ice capable ship
Sikuliaq. By and large, in the past Alaska was too remote to be of much interest, and it took
possible offshore oil and gas development in the 1970s to provide the federal OCSEAP
Program, the Exxon Valdez oil spill to generate interest in Prince William Sound, and
Americanization of the fisheries to further increase research on the Bering Sea to generate
interest in the late 1970s. Here is an example. We at UA prepared a research proposal in
response to a new NSF initiative. It was called “Research addressing National Needs.” This
was in the early 1970s. The Outer Continental Environmental assessment program had
been initiated in response
to the possible oil and gas offshore leasing. Our proposal was a truly multi-disciplinary
study of Prince William Sound, including the physical processes, biological, meteorological,
social, glacial and hydrological etc. Today, it would be termed trans-disciplinary. This was
way before its time. It was turned down. Why? Because the agency said that this was a
remote area, and not an important area for the United States. And then what happened?
Along came the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and there was little or no baseline knowledge for the
system. How valuable the baseline information would have been…
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Section Title
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If you look at a global picture of phytoplankton production, as estimated by plant pigments,
you note immediately that the richest waters are not in warm tropical or sub-tropical waters,
but rather, they are at high latitudes. This picture is a composite of satellite pigment
measurements of chlorophyll. Then we have it ask, why are warm waters unproductive and
cold nasty places productive? The answer is simple. In warm areas, surface water does not
mix down, due to stratification. Plankton at the surface die and sink, releasing nutrients at
depth, and these nutrients are removed from the surface waters. The water is impoverished.
At high latitudes, there is more mixing and there are episodic events. Episodic. It turns out
that the boundary seas between the temperate and the Arctic are the most productive. Here
we have the big fisheries, the cod in the Atlantic, the Pollock here. In the North Atlantic, as
the water warms up and deep mixing is reduced, the spring phytoplankton bloom is
triggered. In the Bering Sea, the mechanism is a bit different, and we will get to that. It is
not exactly a picnic to be out of these waters, but very worthwhile if you want to catch fish.
Examples of this geographic region are the Barents Sea, Greenland Sea, and Bering Sea,
northeast Canadian area (i.e. the Dogger Bank), all important fishing areas. But the most
productive by far is the Bering Sea. Here you find an extraordinary diversity of animals at
all levels, for examples, seals, walrus, sea lions, whales, fishes, birds- huge numbers and
huge diversity. Of course, much fewer than the historical numbers. Humans have had an
impact since they caused the extinction of the Steller Sea Cow.
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The Bering Sea is the most productive of the seas adjacent to the Arctic Ocean due to a
substantial supply of nutrients from inflows from the Pacific Ocean. The Gulf of Alaska
Coastal Current and part of the Gulf of Alaska gyre passes through passes in the Aleutian
Islands and feed the Bering Sea, but also water is upwelled from the deep basin onto the
shelf, to some extent through enormous canyons, which cross the shelf break. This results
in what has been termed the “Green Belt,” a ring of high productivity that crosses to the
northwest across the outer shelf and moves through the Gulf of Anadyr up to and through
the Bering Strait. It results productive feeding grounds for walrus, whales and birds in the
northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea.
The annual advance and retreat of sea ice in the Bering Sea extends over 900 km in cold
periods, almost reaching the shelf break, where the sea bottom falls down to the deep ocean.
This is one of the largest seasonal events in any ocean. It influences the productivity and the
entire food chain, and leaves us with serious concern about what will happen when the ice
no longer advances and retreats each year..
One interesting fact is that the sea ice moves south primarily due to wind transport, and is
formed in polynyas along the south-facing coasts of St. Lawrence Island and the
mainland. The Russian word polynya refers to an area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
Polynyas are important for mammals and birds, because they afford access to the sea, while
at the same time providing a secure platform to rest on. The Bering Sea polynyas are caused
by winds moving ice away from the south-facing land, leaving very cold, dense open water,
which then freezes more, and again is blown southward. Something a bit like a conveyor
belt.
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This ice cover plays an important role in the productivity of the Bering Sea. In spring, as
the ice meets warmer water to the south, it starts to melt. This forms a layer of low salinity
water at the surface, and also releases algae that have been growing in and on the underside
of the ice. This results in what is called a phytoplankton bloom that is so intense that it not
only is grazed by the zooplankton, but much falls to the bottom to feed the crabs and other
invertebrates. The bloom is as intense as any seen in the upwelling systems round the globe,
but it doesn’t last. Inevitably it runs out of plant nutrients, and starts to sink, still producing
as it reaches water below with higher nutrient content. This bloom is spectacular. I wish I
could have shown you a picture, which I have somewhere in a box. The sea is the color and
consistency of red lentil soup. Naturally, we are worried that the ice will not advance as far
in the future, and this will impact the annual regime. This production takes place at least a
month earlier than any substantial production would occur in the absence of sea ice, and we
know that when the sea ice doesn’t reaches far, there is no early spring phytoplankton
bloom. There was a regime shift in the late 1970s that made a huge difference by limiting
the ice extent for the spring season., as warmer conditions developed.
Many other things happened. For one, an inexplicable decline in Steller Sea Lion
populations began in the Western Gulf of Alaska and in the Bering Sea. That seemed to
parallel the increase in the Pollock fishery after the regime shift of the 60s. The interesting
thing is that this was not the case in the eastern Gulf of Alaska. There, the
sea lion population seemed fine. The consequences to the Bering Sea fishing industry were
enormous, since fishing was prohibited within 50 miles of important Steller sea lion
rookeries, which also happen to be very good fishing grounds. I doubt whether there are
many research efforts as frantic and as well-funded (mostly via Senator Stevens), targeting
the issue, with limited success.
Although the Bering Sea is extremely rich in biota, and thus plays an
important part in the economy of Alaska and its food supply, it is by no means safe against
human impacts. For example, starting in 1848, Yankee whalers killed 13,000 whales over
two decades, and then switched to walrus when the whales were gone. Massive starvation
occurred in coastal communities dependent on the whales. It is not bard to change a marine
ecosystem by removing top predators, and possibly some of the present changes in the
Bering Sea could have resulted from this whaling, according to a paper by Alan Springer.
The whaling only ceased in the 1970s. Although Bowhead whales can now support a
subsistence allocation, Pacific Right Whales have essentially disappeared.
The Fishing Industry
These waters have nurtured coastal communities in Alaska for many centuries, providing
food and cultural context. Then, too, the Alaskan fishing industry is second to none, and the
ports of Dutch Harbor and Kodiak usually vies for first position in the United States in total
catch landed, primarily due to the Walleye Pollock fishery. At
least 40% of the US wild caught fish comes from Alaska. The North Pacific Fisheries
Management Council, which handles the allocations in US waters, has a reputation as the
best of the councils in the US. These Councils manage and regulate the fisheries, combining
the efforts of managers, industry representatives and academics. Originally the Magnuson
act of 1976 was enacted in response to large, highly capable fishing vessels from other
nations coming to Alaskan waters, especially the Bering Sea. Their capabilities could and
would have stripped the waters pretty quickly. So the aim was the Americanization of the
fisheries. It evolved to become an effective mechanism. It was all due to a group of
forward-looking people, including industry, legislative, government and academics, which
pushed the legislation through. The aim was to reserve the EEZ for US fishing, and to
rebuild depleted stocks. There were loopholes, though, and these were addressed later. The
Magnusson/Stevens Act (2006) now requires ecosystem-based management, sustainable
fishing, and scientifically based decisions on catch limits, although these are not easy to
achieve. The National Marine Fisheries Service has the responsibility for getting the data,
largely based on periodic (usually annual or biennial) stock assessment surveys, and
extensive work by the Management Council Scientific and Statistical Committee using the
most modern statistical methodology. But there are many changes underway, and these
same waters are going through the biggest climatic changes on the planet, with multiple
impacts. Since the Magnusson Act, and more recently, the Magnusson/Stevens act, only US
vessels conduct the fishery in US territorial waters. The Pollock catch in 2016 was set at
1,340,000 mt. The catch is divided equally between shore based and ship-based processors.
The ship-based processors operate huge catcher/processors, which produce boxes of frozen
fillets, roe, or surimi. The inedible parts go for fishmeal and oil, so that there is about 99%
utilization and very little waste. The on-shore take is processed at coastal facilities, largely
Dutch Harbor and Kodiak. The catcher processors belong to and are coordinated by an
organization called the At-Sea Processors, which is based in Seattle, but with an Anchorage
office as well. 6 companies are members, with 16 flagged ships. The fishing industry in
Alaska has strong ties with Seattle. In any event, this industry is sustainable and the
resource is renewable if well managed.
One man has devoted his life to securing the fishing for the future. Clem Tillion of Halibut
Cove had been a fisherman, but gave it up and settled into the political scene in several
capacities, including years on the State legislature, ensuring that the next generations would
be able to catch wild fish. He was instrumental in securing the Magnuson/Stevens act. A few
years ago, UAF awarded him an honorary doctorate. He and his family settled in Halibut
Cove, across the water from Homer. This delightful, irascible, opinionated man has done so
much for Alaska!
Of course, Alaska also had the amazing runs of salmon that provide subsistence and
commercial opportunities, now further enhanced by ocean ranching. We could spend weeks
talking about issues relating to salmon. We could go on and on-the halibut, cod, rockfish
and so on. I am focusing on Pollock as an example of issues relating to the Bering Sea.
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