This dataset contains GIS layers that depict the known spatial distributions (i.e., ranges) and reported breeding areas of ribbon seals (Histriophoca fasciata). It was produced as part of a U.S. Endangered Species Act status review, which included delineating the species in question and assessing its risk of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Its boundaries are based on previously published range maps and/or descriptions of the species' distribution in published or unpublished accounts. All boundaries should be considered approximate.

Counts of Steller sea lions pups, adults, and juveniles are used to monitor trends in the population and used in the development of population models.

The Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project in Alaska was initiated in 1997 by the Auke Bay Laboratory, National Marine Fisheries Service, to study the habitat use and early marine ecology of juvenile (age-0) Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and associated epipelagic ichthyofauna. This research has been conducted to meet several needs identified in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries 2006-2011 Strategic Plan, the North Pacific Anadromous Fisheries Commission (NPAFC) 20062010 Science Plan, and the Gulf of Alaska Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) Program.

A primary goal of the 2006-2011 NOAA Fisheries Strategic Plan is to Protect, Restore, and Manage the Use of Coastal and Ocean Resources Through an Ecosystem Approach to Management. SECM research addresses the five fundamental activities identified under this goal, which include: Monitor and observe the land, sea, atmosphere. Understand and describe how natural systems work together, Assess and predict the changes in natural systems, Engage, advise, and inform individuals, partners, communities, and industries, and, Manage coastal and ocean resources SECM research emphasizes long-term monitoring of coastal marine habitats used by juvenile salmon and associated epipelagic fishes, to understand how environmental variation affects the sustainability of these marine resources in an ecological context.

The study of juvenile anadromous stocks of salmon in ocean ecosystems is an important component of the NPAFC 2006-2010 Science Plan. This component recommends studies directed at understanding: seasonal distribution and migration route/timing of juvenile salmon; hydrological characteristics, primary production, and prey resources in the habitats; trophic linkages, growth rates and predation rates of juvenile salmon; and population size, survival rate and survival mechanism of juvenile salmon. SECM research focuses on each of these elements of this component. In particular, SECM examines the relationships among habitat use, marine growth, hatchery and wild stock interactions, year-class strength, and ocean carrying capacity of key juvenile salmon stocks in the Eastern Pacific rim.

Research under the GLOBEC program incorporates basin-scale studies to determine how plankton productivity and the carrying capacity for high-trophic level, pelagic carnivores in the North Pacific Ocean change in response to climate variations, and incorporates regional-scale ecosystem studies to compare how variations in ocean climate affect species dominance and fish populations in the coastal margins of the Pacific Rim. SECM research addresses the regional-scale component of the GLOBEC program by 1) collecting biological data on juvenile Pacific salmon and ecologically related fish species from surface rope trawl samples, 2) monitoring physical and biological oceanographic indices at sampling stations in marine habitats, and 3) conducting process studies focusing on bioenergetics, prey fields, and trophic relationships of juvenile salmon and associated fishes.

Heritabilities of growth, precocious maturation and smolting were measured in 75 families of juvenile steelhead or rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss, progeny of within and between line matings (crosses) of wild, anadromous steelhead and wild, resident (lake) rainbow trout originally derived from the same anadromous stock 70 years earlier. The tagged yearling progeny were combined by line in common freshwater rearing containers and graded into three categories: mature, smolt or rearing (undifferentiated) at age 2 years. Heritabilities of precocious male maturity, smolting and growth were moderate to high, and the genetic correlation between growth and smolting was low. Smolting and precocious male maturity were highly variable among families within lines and significantly different between lines. Each of the four lines produced significant numbers of smolts at age two. Smolting and maturation were negatively genetically correlated, which may explain the persistence of smolting in the lake population despite strong selection against lake smolts; balancing selection on male maturation age may help to maintain variation for smolting. The high heritability of smolting, coupled with the inability of smolts that leave the lake to return to it indicates that the genetic potential for smolting can lie dormant or be maintained through a dynamic interaction between smolting and early maturation for decades despite complete selection against the phenotype. The results have significant implications for the preservation of threatened anadromous stocks in fresh water and the inclusion of resident fish of formerly anadromous populations, currently trapped behind long-standing barriers to migration, as one component of the same population.

This dataset is from a study that analyzed the late summer distribution of juvenile Pacific cod in the eastern Bering Sea for 6 cohorts (2004-2009), based on catches in the Bering-Aleutian Salmon International Survey (BASIS).

Relatively little is known of the diet and foraging behaviors of the four species of ice-associated seals (ribbon seal, bearded seal, spotted seal, and ringed seal) and harbor seals in Alaska. What is known comes largely from stomach contents of animals harvested during subsistence hunting near coastal communities. Diet and foraging ecology are likely highly sensitive to the availability of suitable habitats and sea ice conditions. They may be particularly vulnerable to climatic change and other disruptions from more direct anthropogenic effects such as offshore oil and gas development. Our ability to predict and manage for such impacts, however, is limited by our inadequate knowledge of seal ecology. This database contains diet data obtained by scat samples from seals across a variety of research projects. Scat samples were collected from ribbon and spotted seals in the pack ice in the Bering Sea during April, May, and June of 2007-2010, and 2014. The diet data in this database were obtained by analyzing otoliths from these scats. Scat samples have also been collected from harbor seals from Lake Iliamna in July-August 2015, and from the Aleutian Islands in September 2015. Diet data based on otoliths from these scats will also be recorded in this dataset.

The web-posted Alaska Shore Station Database is a compilation of hundreds of intertidal sites that were visited and evaluated throughout the coastal waters of Alaska. At each station attempts are made to document all observed species and their assemblages, geomorphic features, measurements of beach length and slope, and gather photographic examples. This online database has been designed to integrate with the spatially explicit, Alaska ShoreZone web enabled GIS platform. The end result is a user friendly and accessible version of the Shore Station database with a queryable display of station locations, downloadable species lists and photos.

These data were used by Kuhn et al. (2015) to investigate how conclusions about predator-prey relationships change with increasing temporal disparity between predator tracking periods and prey surveys. Northern fur seals (n = 20) from St. Paul Island (Alaska, USA) were equipped with satellite tracking transmitters and time-depth recorders from July to October 2006. Fur seal dive and movement metrics were examined in relation to the relative abundance of the fur seals’ primary prey, walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus), reported from the annual eastern Bering Sea groundfish survey. Relationships between foraging behavior metrics and prey abundance were examined within the Bering shelf survey grid cells at three time scales: within 2 weeks of the prey survey, within 1 month, and over the northern fur seal reproductive season (>4 months).

The scientific objective of the Gulf of Alaska Survey (GOA Survey) is to assess Young of the Year (YOY) groundfish, salmon, plankton, and oceanographic conditions across the coastal, shelf, slope, and offshore waters of the GOA and to provide information on species distribution, ecosystem structure, and marine productivity in response to changes in season, region, and climate. Specific objectives are to 1) observe epi-pelagic fish communities by sampling with a rope trawl towed at the surface; 2) collect electronic oceanographic data including CTD (Conductivity-temperature-depth) vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, light transmission, chlorophyll a fluorescence, and photosynthetic available radiation (PAR); and 3) collect biological oceanographic samples (zooplankton and water) by oblique bongo tows and water sampling.