National Overview of BASIS Research for the United States

Small-scale studies on early marine life history of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Bristol Bay in the southeastern Bering Sea were done during 1966–1972 (Straty 1974; Straty and Jaenicke 1980). Current salmon research by the Unites States in the Bering Sea began in 1999 with emphasis on monitoring the effects of ocean conditions on growth, migration, and distribution of juvenile sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay (Farley et al. 1999). Since then, the U.S. program has expanded to include most of the continental shelf in the eastern Bering Sea and includes comprehensive ecosystem information on other species of salmon, forage fish, other nekton, plankton, and oceanographic conditions. Research on immature and adult salmon in the Bering Sea has been accomplished largely through retrospective studies and cooperative high seas research programs with other North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) parties. Concerns about declines in salmon abundance on both the Asian and North American sides of the Bering Sea resulted in the NPAFC developing a BASIS research plan in 2001. This plan called for seasonal synoptic surveys of salmon abundance and distribution throughout the Bering Sea (Fig. 1). Russian scientists would survey the western Bering Sea, Japanese scientists would survey the central Bering Sea, and U.S. scientists would survey the eastern portion. In addition to salmon surveys, observations would be made on forage fish, plankton, and oceanographic conditions. Synoptic surveys began in 2002 and continued in 2003 and 2004