Pacific Northwest Community Meeting: Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington March 1, 2002 (inquiries Bill Peterson) Meeting Minutes - Participants
Monterey and San Francisco Bay areas Community Meeting: Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, Moss Landing, California, January 28, 2002, ACCEO: Meeting MinutesMeeting Minutes
Reoccupation of formerly occupied CalCOFI lines, an important ACCEO contribution.
Paul Smith, John Hunter, and Richard Charter
Lack of resources by member organizations required reducing the CalCOFI pattern in 1985 to one concentrated in the Southern California Bight. CalCOFI deleted the stations on the northern CalCOFI track lines (Lines 73 - 60, Figure 1), which had been occupied fairly regularly from 1950 -1984. An important goal of ACCEO is to track effects of ocean climate on marine populations over time. Reoccupation of these northern stations, in the former CalCOFI pattern, would be a particularly valuable contribution by ACCEO because present day indices of population abundance could be linked to those of the same species 50 years ago. In the northern segment of the CalCOFI pattern, nearshore shelf and slope rockfish (Sebastes) and hake are particularly important commercial species. The peak abundances of Sebastes larvae appear to be highest at stations on the northern survey lines (Lines 67, 63, 60, Figure 1), indicating the importance of including these northern lines in indices of abundance of these fishes. If these northern CalCOFI stations were to be reoccupied, an important question is, "how far from shore must the survey extend?". It may be seen for two common groups of species, the rockfishes (Sebastes) and the sand dabs, station lines would need to extend at least 80 nautical miles from shore to capture the majority of specimens (Figure 2). Although sand dabs, and many species of adult Sebastes live close to shore, their larvae may be transported quite far from shore as these illustrations indicate.
IMECOCAL Contribution to ACCEO.
John Hunter
The resumption of a large fraction of the southern CalCOFI survey in Baja California waters by Mexican scientists (Figure 1) is a major advance in monitoring the pelagic ecosystem of the California Current and could anchor the southern end of the ACCEO surveys. The new Mexican organization is known as IMECOCAL (Investigaciones Mexicanas De La Corriente De California). IMECOCAL, a consortium of Mexican Universities, carries out regular quarterly surveys in phase with, and making the same standard measurements as those of, CalCOFI. See IMECOCAL website for details.
