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2001 Radio Scripts

Right Whale Skeleton

Bad Air

Mountains of Change

Crab Pod (v)

Salmon Getting Smaller*

Deep-Sea Coral*

Laser Fish*

Fingerprinting Pollock*

Bears In My Backyard

Exploring Alaska Seamounts

Alaska Dinosaur Discovery

Alaska Fire Research

Trawling for Answers*

Kittiwake Contrast*

Mercury in Pike*

Fireweed

Whale Count

Morel Hunting

Climate Confusion

Alaska Feels the Heat*

Alaska Getting Shrubbier

Insuring Alaska's Salmon Crop

Crested Auklets

What Walrus Eat* (v)

Plankton Bloom*

Sick Salmon

Bubble Gum Walrus (v)

Salmon May Move North

Polar Bears Change Diet

Archiving Alaska's Insects

Avalanche!

Industry Funds Sea Lion Science

Endangered Wildlife Trade

Nuke Plan Threatens Arctic

Humans Cause Climate Warming

Green Seafood

Alaska Marine Species List

New Crabs in Alaska

(v) means video clips are included.* = North Pacific Marine Research Program

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Arctic Science Journeys Radio Scripts 2001

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Latest Scripts and AudioToxic Farmed Salmon (5:00:00)Health officials have consistently said a diet that includesfish such as salmon lowers the chance of heart disease andother ailments. And while that advice remains true today,scientists who just completed a study of contaminants inthe world's salmon supply say not all salmon are safe toeat. Doug Schneider has more in this week's Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio. (audio)

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Alaska's Coral Gardens (5:00:00)Deep on the bottom of the sea, in one of the most remoteparts of Alaska, let alone the planet, lie some of the mostbeautiful coral gardens the world has�for the most part�never seen. And now these same coral beds have takencenter stage in a battle to protect the waters off Alaskafrom overfishing. Doug Schneider has more in this week'sArctic Science Journeys Radio. (audio)

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Radio Script2001

Scientists using the submersible Alvin to study Alaska'sundersea volcanoes stumbled across this skeleton of arare northern right whale. (Courtesy Brad Stevens,NMFS.)

Right Whale Skeleton__________________

This page contains a video clip in QuickTimeformat.

INTRO: Northern right whales are among the most endangeredspecies in the world. Just a handful of them�perhaps less than a dozen�live in the frigid waters off Alaska. So rare are right whales thatscientists haven't seen a right whale calf in the North Pacific Ocean innearly 150 years. So it came as a surprise when scientists exploring theocean floor in 1999 encountered the skeleton of a right whale. DougSchneider has more in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: The discovery was made by scientists aboard the Alvinsubmersible during an exploratory cruise of the Patton Seamount, anundersea volcano near Kodiak, Alaska. A videotape of the discovery

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Related ASJ Story:Studying Alaska'sUndersea Volcanoes

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now resides in the hands of Brad Stevens, a biologist with the NationalMarine Fisheries Service in Kodiak. As the video plays on a televisionmonitor, Stevens describes the nearly intact skeleton of a 40-footwhale.

STEVENS: "So here you see the skeleton. It's pretty good size. We'relooking at the vertebrae here, which are probably a foot across, easily.There are a few things on it, but it's pretty well stripped clean. It'sprobably been down there a few years."

Whale skeleton video clip, 50 sec, courtesyBrad Stevens, NMFS:

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Its distinctly curved jawbone and skull identify the skeleton as havingonce belonged to a northern right whale. Right whales are extremelyrare to see alive in the North Pacific Ocean; rarer still to find acomplete skeleton lying virtually undisturbed on the seafloor. Stevenssays the only thing missing from this skeleton was a single vertebra.

STEVENS: "Here's an interesting point in the skeleton. All of thevertebrae are here, shoulder blades and rib bones. Then there is a breakin the spinal column, where it's missing a vertebra. So we go 50 metersoff and leave the skeleton behind and what do we find? We find themissing vertebrae. It's a big bone. You wonder how the hell did it getover there? It didn't roll down hill. Something big had to pick thatthing up and carry it over there, maybe a big shark. I have a vision inmy mind of an army of crabs picking this thing up and carrying itacross the seafloor, going 'Left, left, no, right. Ah, just drop it!'"

While finding a right whale skeleton on the seafloor is a stroke of luck,Stevens says it wouldn't be unusual to find other whale skeletons onthe seafloor. In fact, he says dead whales drifting to the ocean floor arean important source of nutrients for a variety of sea life.

STEVENS: "It didn't come down as a skeleton. It came down as awhale. I mean, that's what happens when they die. They sink to thebottom. It becomes a food fall for all kinds of organisms around.There's a whole series of succession. First you get the mobile predatorslike large fishes and big crab that come in and eat, and then the lessmobile predators like limpets and snails, and eventually you're down tomicrobes working on it. But there's a whole community of worms andthings that crop up underneath it as the nutrients fall off and areredistributed into the sediment."



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In the big scheme of the ocean food chain, whales�as big as they are�account for only a small share of the nutrients reaching the seafloor.The near-constant rain of plankton and other marine life togethersupply far more food than do dead whales. But the carcasses do helpbring nutrients normally found only near the surface down into thedeepest parts of the ocean. For creatures like the giant spider crab, adead whale is a welcome feast.

STEVENS: "Some of the large crabs, like spider crabs, are living inplaces where there isn't much to eat. They can probably survive forlong periods of time without eating. But they may subsist in large partoff of food falls like this. It could be 100 of them or more that couldlive of a carcass like this for months."

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mDoug Schneider.

Audio version and related Web sites

Thanks to the following individual for help preparing this script:

Dr. Brad Stevens, Research Fisheries BiologistNational Marine Fisheries ServiceKodiak Fisheries Research Center301 Research CourtKodiak, Alaska 99615-1638Ph: 907-481-1726Email: [email protected]

Arctic Science Journeys is a radio service highlighting science,culture, and the environment of the circumpolar north. Produced bythe Alaska Sea Grant College Program and the University of AlaskaFairbanks.

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Radio Script2001

Rush hour�Vehicle exhaust is responsible for some 70percent of carbon monoxide emissions in the Fairbanksarea. (Courtesy Doug Schneider, Alaska Sea Grant.)

Bad Air__________________

INTRO: When you think of cities with bad air, perhaps places likeLos Angeles spring to mind. But few of us would ever think ofFairbanks, Alaska�set amid glaciers, wilderness and wildlife�as a citywith some of the nation's worst air. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, the city is making a noble effortto clean up its act.

STORY: It's just before 8 a.m.�rush hour in Fairbanks, Alaska. Thetemperature this day is 25°F below zero. The dry, bitterly cold air hasspawned what locals call ice fog. Ice fog is a sometimes dangerous,ground-hugging cloud of everything that comes out of each chimney,smokestack and vehicle tailpipe in town�things like wood smoke, coalsoot, water vapor, and a virtual cocktail of potentially harmfulchemicals like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide andsulfur dioxide, to name a few.

Nancy Fresco is a program coordinator with the Northern AlaskaEnvironmental Center in Fairbanks. She says Fairbanks ice fog is aproduct of geography and climate.

FRESCO: "We're surrounded by a double ring of hills. So we're


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" Fairbanks is one of onlyseven cities nationwideranked by the EPA as a"nonattainment" area forcarbon monoxidepollution.

" About 70 percent of thecarbon monoxide in ourair is from motor vehicleexhaust.

" When inhaled, carbon

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Inversion�Cold air aroundFairbanks creates a thermalinversion that prevents warm air fromrising. Here, pollution from a powerplant rises only slightly beforeleveling off and returning to theground. (Courtesy Doug Schneider,Alaska Sea Grant)

trapped in a pocket here. It's alsoone of the least windy places onearth. Because the temperaturesget so cold in the winter, we getthese air inversions. Normal airpatterns involve warm air rising.What we get is cold air that sitsand doesn't rise. The problem wehave is that any pollution wecreate under these cold airinversions just sits on top of us.The pollution we create is whatwe have to breathe."

While there's a host of pollutantsand particulates in Fairbanks's icefog, the one chemical healthadvocates worry most about iscarbon monoxide. Nancy Fresco says air temperatures don't need to becold enough to form ice fog to have high concentrations of carbonmonoxide.

FRESCO: "The thing that's devious about carbon monoxide is that it'snot what you can smell and taste in the air. It's odorless and you can'tsee it. So it's doing damage to your lungs, particularly for people withasthma, for older people, for small children."

Most of the carbon monoxide in the city's air comes from the area'sthousands of cars and trucks. And it's precisely because of carbonmonoxide that Fairbanks has the dubious distinction of being amongthe nation's seven most air-polluted cities�joined by the likes of LosAngeles, Anchorage, and Denver, according to the federalEnvironmental Protection Agency. Gerald Guay oversees Alaska's airquality program for the state Department of EnvironmentalConservation.

GUAY: "In the case of Fairbanks, even though they don't have a lot ofcars, the carbon monoxide that comes out of the tailpipes of carsoccasionally exceeds national ambient air quality standards, which aretied to health implications. So for that reason, EPA is pretty adamant ingetting cities to meet air quality standards."

Scattered around the downtown area are three instruments thatconstantly sniff the air to measure concentrations of carbon monoxideand other pollutants. Should carbon monoxide levels reach or exceed9.5 parts per million, Guay says the city could lose millions of dollarsin federal highway construction and improvement money.

GUAY: "We were looking at around 20 to 30 parts per million of

monoxide enters theblood stream andchemically binds tohemoglobin, thesubstance that carriesoxygen to the cells. Thisreduces the amount ofoxygen delivered to allbody tissues.

" Results from vehiclestested in Anchorage andFairbanks indicate thatduring the first minuteafter a cold start,emissions are 50 to 100times higher than theyare when the engine isfully warm.

" New cars with very lowwarm-engine emissionsoften pollute just as badlyas old cars during coldstarts.

" Results also suggestthat using an engineblock heater can cutemissions by about twothirds.

" The worst air pollutionin Fairbanks tends tooccur when thetemperature is between�20°F and +20°F, ratherthan on the coldest days.

" Cars should be pluggedin at temperatures up to+20°F.

" Using a timerprogrammed to turn ablock heater on two hoursbefore driving costs abouttwelve cents a day.

" Carpooling andcombining errands cankeep cars off the roadaltogether.

" Human health effectssuch as impairedbreathing, chronicrespiratory disease,



Thick air�A dense layer of ice foghangs over houses in a Fairbanksneighborhood. (Courtesy DougSchneider, Alaska Sea Grant)

carbon monoxide 15 to 20 yearsago. Those levels have kind ofleveled off at around 9 parts permillion, so we have the potentialevery year to exceed."

Plug it in�plugging avehicle's engine and oilheaters in when thetemperature is 20 degreesor colder dramaticallyreduces engine emissionsduring cold starts.(Courtesy Ron Dearborn,Alaska Sea Grant)

Thusfar,even

though Fairbanks has endured a nearlytwo-week spell of subzero temperatures,carbon monoxide levels haven't exceededthe federal standard. And last year, aswell, Fairbanks hovered close to but didn'texceed safe levels. Officials say a publicrelations campaign that encourages peopleto plug their cars into special heaters thatkeep their engines warm when parked,thereby reducing vehicle emissions duringstartup, has helped. Also important hasbeen a federally subsidized city busprogram that offers free rides throughoutthe winter to encourage people to drivetheir own cars less. Nancy Fresco.

FRESCO: "The bus program has been very positive. I think we canmake it a lot better by extending the routes and hours and advertising.A lot of people don't take advantage of it because they aren't aware thatthe bus can take them to where they want to go."

With months of winter, and even colder temperatures, still to come,Nancy Fresco and Gerald Guay say Fairbanks isn't in the clear yet. Butlike many Fairbanksans, they're keeping their fingers crossed andhoping for an early spring.


Audio version and related Web sites (sidebar at top right)

Thanks to the following individuals for help preparing this script:

Nancy Fresco, Program CoordinatorNorthern Alaska Environmental Center

weakening of the immunesystem, cancer, andpremature death can alsobe caused by other airpollutants, includingnitrous oxides, ground-level ozone, sulfurdioxide, and particulates.

" Nitrous oxides andsulfur dioxide are mainlyproduced by industrialsources such as powerplants. They areregulated through airquality permits, but thesepermits could be muchmore rigorous.

" Particulates areproduced from manysources, including woodstoves, open burning,and driving with studdedtires on dry roads. Usingwood stoves withcatalytic converters,using wood stovesefficiently, and removingsnow tires promptly inthe spring can greatlyreduce particulates.

(Courtesy NorthernAlaska EnvironmentalCenter)



830 College RoadFairbanks, AK 99701Phone: 907-452-5021Email: [email protected]

Gerald Guay, ManagerAir Monitoring SectionAlaska Department of Environmental ConservationAnchorage, AlaskaPhone: 907-269-3070Email: [email protected]



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Radio Script2001

Mountain climbers say they're seeingchanges caused by a warmer globalclimate. (Courtesy Denali NationalPark.)

Mountains of Change__________________

INTRO: Mountain climbers spend a great deal of time traversingglaciers, climbing steep, rocky slopes and huddling in snow caves. Soit makes sense that they would have noticed the effects of a warmerclimate on the world's loftier regions. As Doug Schneider reports inthis week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, one of the world's topmountain climbers has noticed. He's now helping the rest of us tonotice, too.

STORY: Unless you read Outsidemagazine or follow the tight-knitcommunity of mountain climbers, you maynot have heard of Conrad Anker. Still,Anker is a famous guy. He's madenumerous first assents, solo assents, andgroup climbs on many of the mostunforgiving peaks in the world. FromAlaska to Patagonia to the Himalayas, he'sseen firsthand the impact of anever-warmer planet on the world's glaciers,ice sheets and snow fields.

ANKER: "The glaciers that climbers plytheir trade on and have fun on�they seethem firsthand. The changes that these


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glaciers have undergone are probably among the first thing thatclimbers notice. It first struck my attention that the glaciers werechanging was in 1991. I had gone up to the Alaska range and climbedinto Kachatnas. The pictures that we had of the mountain we wereclimbing on were taken in the early 1970s. And just in that 13 or14-year period between when we climbed on it and the time thosephotos were taken, the glaciers had receded quite a bit. That was reallymy first intimation that, 'Oh my gosh, things are changing here.' Once Isaw that, in all of my subsequent expeditions I became quite tuned intoit."

So tuned into it that he's now helping scientists study the effects ofclimate change on mountains. Last year, Anker took fellow climberand glaciologist Dan Stone to the slopes of Antarctica's highestmountain, Vinson Massif. Anker says the NOVA-television-sponsoredexpedition was aimed in part at learning more about snowaccumulation in Antarctica's mountains.

Snow pit�Climbers and scientistsstudying snow accumulation inAntarctica's highest mountains hope tolearn more about how the earth's climateis changing. Climber Conrad Anker, left,takes notes, while glaciologist Dan Stonemeasures the snow's temperature.(Courtesy Jon Krakauer)

ANKER: "And the goal ofour expedition was to climbthe highest peak and also todo a baseline snow survey ofthe mountain range there, tolook at how snowaccumulation changes overelevation. So we started at700 meters above sea leveland went to an elevation ofabout 4,200 meters, whichwas our last survey site. Wedid intervals of 500 meters,and at each site we would diga two-meter snow pit and do aprofile of the snow in there.

So we could see how it was laid down, the density of it, by looking atthe crystals and things in there."

Dan Stone says the study of mountain snowfall was a first forAntarctica, and may prove important as scientists study mass-balance�that is how snow and ice accumulates and is removed through meltingand other mechanisms on the continent.

STONE: "It'd be wrong to extrapolate results from one trip, one timeof the year and one part of the continent to the rest of the continent.But certainly we can provide a starting point, a baseline. There's apossibility that the calculations of mass-balance and in particular snowaccumulation in Antarctica could be revised based on how themountainous areas are treated. Whether or not that's going to make a



significant or negligible change in the current values of accumulation,I can't say at this point. At least it's a start to try to think in thatdirection, anyway."

As a scientist who happens to also be an accomplished climber, Stoneis hopeful other scientists will begin to see the climbing community asa useful and important tool as they expand their studies of climatechange into the highest reaches of the planet.

STONE: "There's interest in low-latitude, high-altitude glaciers�whattheir response is, say, in the Himalayas and the Andes. I know ofseveral glaciologists working in different parts of the world like that,and it certainly requires some climbing skills, mountaineering skills, ifnot technical climbing skills. So I think there's a role for climbers toplay."

For his part, Conrad Anker says he hopes to use his celebrity stature toinform people of how climate warming is changing the face of theworld's mountains.

ANKER: "Climbing is a pretty frivolous pursuit. It's a great pastime, agreat hobby. But we're not out there finding a cure for illness orfinding a new crop, or something like that. But if I can use the smallbit of notoriety that I've gained from being a climber and share it withother people so they can get an idea of what I encountered in theseplaces, then that's a good thing."

To help in that goal, Anker together with the North Face and A5Portaledges have created a new Web site devoted to finding solutionsto environmental problems. Anker says he hopes the site will bringclimbers and nonclimbers together in support of a common cause.

ANKER: "Some of the scenarios that are being put forth sound prettydire. If I can help make people aware of that and then maybe somepeople can change their own lifestyle accordingly, driving less, tryingto consuming fewer products that harm the environment, then I'vedone my little bit."




Conrad AnkerBozeman, MontanaPhone: 406-585-5470Email: [email protected]




Dan Stone, Ph.D.Senior HydrogeologistGeomega, Inc.2995 Baseline Road, Suite 202Boulder, CO 80303Phone 303-443-9117 ext. 101Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/12.07.01mountain-change.html





Radio Script2001

Scientists in Kodiak, Alaska, track the movements andbehavior of red king crab to learn how to help stocksrecover. (Courtesy Pete Cummiskey, NMFS)

Crab Pod__________________

This page contains a video clip in QuickTimeformat.

INTRO: Animals, fish and birds have devised lots of ways to avoidbeing eaten by hungry predators. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, even the red king crabs livingon the sea floor off Alaska have a trick or two for confusing predators.

STORY: Several times each week, crab researchers Pete Cummiskeyand Eric Munk make the short drive from the fishing town of Kodiak,Alaska, out past the U.S. Coast Guard base to Womens Bay, apicturesque inlet that at this time of year is surrounded by snowcappedhills and mountains.

They launch their small inflatable skiff and motor a short ways off


Download RealAudio

Related Web sites

Kodiak Fisheries ResearchCenter

High Latitude Crabs:Biology, Management,and Economics(proceedings from crabsymposium)

Crab Pod: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/11.30.01crab-pod.html (1 of 4) [4/2/2004 6:52:00 AM]


http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/CrabPod.ram




http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/Pubs_Videos/pubs/AK-SG-96-02.html



shore. Cutting the engine, they lower a device called a sonar signalreceiver into the water. The receiver picks up the sound from tinytransmitters glued to the shells of four juvenile red king crab. After afew minutes, Munk and Cummiskey figure they're close to the taggedcrabs. They put scuba tanks over their dry suits and slip over the sideinto the ocean.

Forty feet beneath the surface, Munk and Cummiskey have foundmore than the four crab they fitted with transmitters. They've homed inon a giant, tangled ball of crab�literally thousands of them�on the seafloor. Cummiskey has seen this behavior before. It's called a crab pod.

CUMMISKEY: "Pods are large aggregations of juvenile king crab.The crab pile up in huge piles of thousands and thousands of crab."

Cummiskey and Munk have been following these crab since lastFebruary, when they were not much bigger than a quarter.

CUMMISKEY: "Originally we located this pod of crab and they weretoo small to tag. We were able to keep up with them until they moltedinto a larger size and then we put our smallest tags on and hoped itwould work. It seems to have."

Back on the sea floor, Munk videotapes the pod as Cummiskey uses ameter-long stick to measure the volume of the pod. From that, theyestimate the number of crab to be around 3,000. Most have shells onlythree to four inches across. In a few years, however, their shells will beeight inches or larger, making them the biggest crabs in Alaska.

Crab pod video clip, 3:00 min, courtesy PeteCummiskey, NMFS:

Higher quality clip (31.1 MB)Smaller file (5.9 MB)


But at this stage, they're vulnerable to a host of predators, including seaotters and fish, such as large halibut and sculpin. Which is why theseyoung crab stick together, says Cummiskey.

CUMMISKEY: "The thought is that it is a predator avoidance thing,that if they are all in one spot the predator would have a hard timefinding that group of crab. And if they do find it, then they can only eatso many. It's kind of like herding or schooling and those sorts ofbehaviors in birds and other animals."

Cummiskey says king crab have other ways of outwitting predators. Ifthe pod were attacked by a sea otter, for example, the crab might



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/movies/Crabpod-sm.mov

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http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/movies/Crabpod-sm.mov


choose to flee�sort of every crab for himself. When that happens, thescrambling crab kick up a cloud of mud and silt. Predators have a hardtime seeing them, much less catching them.

As these crab mature, they'll rely on the pod less and less. Cummiskeybelieves that's because adult crab aren't as vulnerable to predators, butalso because larger crab need more food, so they'll spent more timewalking the sea floor in search of things to eat. Cummiskey saysforaging offers some crab a chance to really explore.

CUMMISKEY: "Generally they forage in a fairly tight-knit group. Butwe've seen these crab find each other from different parts of the bay.We've put two tags in one part of the bay and on the same day put twotags in another part of the bay in small groups of crab. Three or fourdays later some of those tags have switched places. So they find eachother on the bottom."

It used to be that red king crab lived in the waters around KodiakIsland in unbelievable numbers. Today, however, red king crab arescarce, even here in Womens Bay, a spot long believed to be a nurseryfor crab. No one knows for sure why, which is where Pete Cummiskeyand Eric Munk come in. Both are scientists with the National MarineFisheries Service, the federal agency charged with finding ways tohelp king crab stocks recover.

CUMMISKEY: "In order to have big king crab you have to have littleking crab. In order to have successful recruitment of little king crabyou need to have the right conditions. We're trying to define thoseconditions, some of the areas that crab utilize and some of thebehavioral aspects. How often do they molt? How much do they growwhen they molt? How long does it take them to become sexuallymature? That's what we're trying to do."

Cummiskey says just coming to Womens Bay each week to see howthis crab pod is doing, is important. For example, they've noticed thatthe number of juvenile red king crab in the bay has gone way up in thelast two years. It's too soon to say whether that means red king crab areon the rebound, but it's a trend he hopes will continue.




Peter CummiskeyResearch Fishery BiologistNational Marine Fisheries Service



Kodiak Fisheries Research Center301 Research CourtKodiak, Alaska 99615Phone: 907-481-1720Email: [email protected]

Eric MunkResearch Fishery BiologistNational Marine Fisheries ServiceKodiak Fisheries Research Center301 Research CourtKodiak, Alaska 99615Phone: 907-481-1728Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/11.30.01crab-pod.html






Radio Script2001

Salmon from Russia's Anadyr River and Alaska's Yukon Riverdeclined in size since the 1960s, according to researchers.(Courtesy Bill Smoker, UAF SFOS.)

Alaska, Russian Salmon Getting Smaller__________________

INTRO: As biologists and fishermen search for the cause of WesternAlaska salmon declines, scientists say the state's Yukon River chumsalmon are getting smaller. What's more, it seems to be a trendaffecting salmon returning to at least one river in Russia as well. DougSchneider has more in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: Chum salmon returning to Alaska's Yukon River and theAnadyr River in Russia have gotten steadily smaller since the 1960s.That's the conclusion drawn from a study of salmon growth done bystate, university and federal researchers.

Bill Smoker, a fisheries scientist from the University of AlaskaFairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, announced thestudy's preliminary findings at a scientific conference in Fairbanks latelast week.


Download RealAudio

Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): Salmon Project

A Basin-wideRetrospective Analysis ofGrowth and SurvivalPatterns in Pink andChum Salmon

Retrospective Analysis ofYukon River ChumSalmon Scale Growth (MSThesis Research ProgressReport by Tim Sands)

Developing and deployinga high-resolution imagingapproach for scaleanalysis (PDF file)

Faculty profile: BillSmoker

Bill Smoker researchprojects

SFOS Fisheries Division

Fingerprinting Pollock: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/SmallerSalmon.ram


http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/fisheries/102/project102.html



http://smoker.jun.alaska.edu/occ/basinwide/index.html





http://smoker.jun.alaska.edu/occ/progress/retro3.htm



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/salmon-scale.pdf




http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/fishdiv/people/faculty.html#smoker

http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/fishdiv/people/faculty.html#smoker

http://smoker.jun.alaska.edu/

http://smoker.jun.alaska.edu/

http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/fishdiv/

SMOKER: "Our conclusions are that mature body size has declined inboth of these histories over decades stretching back into the 1960s.These declines are the result of slowing growth in years three andfour."

Smoker, along with UAF researcher Milo Adkison and scientists fromthe National Marine Fisheries Service, the Alaska Department of Fishand Game and the Russian Pacific Fisheries Research Center,examined growth patterns in chum salmon scales collected since the1960s from both the Yukon and Anadyr rivers. The Anadyr River liesalmost directly across the Bering Strait from the mouth of the Yukon.Both rivers empty into the northern Bering Sea, a region that has seendramatic declines in seabirds and marine mammals in recent decades.

While scientists have in previous studies documented declines of asmuch as 30 percent in the body size of other Pacific salmon stocks, thisis the first time scientists have been able to show a simultaneousdecrease in the size of Yukon and Russian salmon stocks.

Each year, Alaska fisheries managers collect thousands of scales fromsalmon to determine the age of returning stocks. Much like tree ringsthat grow thick in wet years and thin in years of drought, the ringsfound on salmon scales also can reveal growth patterns. Smoker saysthe rings representing the ocean stage of Yukon and Anadyr salmonbecame narrower since the 1960s, meaning salmon ate less andtherefore didn't grow as big while foraging at sea.

Scientists used advanced digital imaging tomeasure growth zones in chum salmon stocksfrom the Yukon and Anadyr rivers. (CourtesyBill Smoker, UAF SFOS.)

SMOKER: "In both collections you could see the historical loss ofbody size continuing up through into the 1990s. We don't know muchabout the population numbers in the Anadyr, whether they've had thesame kind of drastic fall in numbers that we've seen in the Yukon andwestern Alaska, but it is interesting that in general their growthpatterns have been similar to those of the Yukon."



Some scientists have attributed the smaller salmon to intensecompetition for food by too many wild and hatchery salmon on thehigh seas. In addition to the billions of wild salmon that each yearmigrate to the ocean, the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Russia release anestimated five billion hatchery-born salmon into the North PacificOcean. While Smoker says it's too soon to say just what's causing thedecreased salmon size, he doesn't think salmon overcrowding is theproblem.

SMOKER: "It's tempting to attribute these declines to densityinteractions, because over the same years the density of Pacific salmonin the subarctic North Pacific has increased remarkably. But I'mskeptical because the declines encompass eras, years, decades, of bothlow and high density."

Interestingly, Smoker says that while Anadyr River chum stocks havein recent years showed signs of improving growth in the year justbefore spawning, Yukon chums continue to suffer growing pains.Smoker says the problem with Yukon chum stocks may not rest withthe Bering Sea, but rather the Gulf of Alaska.

SMOKER: "One of the salient points here is that the ages at whichchum salmon are experiencing slower growth are at ages two and threeand four years. We believe those are years spent in the subarcticPacific Ocean, outside the Bering Sea. So whatever has caused thedecline seems to be affecting them in the North Pacific Ocean."

Researchers believe western Alaska andSiberian chum salmon stocks spend most oftheir adult lives foraging for food in the Gulf ofAlaska. (Courtesy Bill Smoker, UAF SFOS.)

The researchers conducted their study with funding from the NorthPacific Marine Research Program at the University of AlaskaFairbanks. Some 60 scientists met in Fairbanks to present findingsfrom two years of research on fish, seabirds, marine mammals andoceanography of the North Pacific Ocean.






William Smoker, DirectorFisheries DivisionUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesJuneau, AlaskaPhone: 907-465-6444Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/11.09.01smaller-salmon.html





Radio Script2001

Red tree coral provides habitat for a number of important fish,like this yelloweye rockfish. (Photo courtesy Victoria O'Connell,Alaska Department of Fish and Game.)

Deep-Sea Coral__________________

INTRO: Probably few of us can imagine living to be well over onehundred years old. Yet in nature, many species often live this long.Bowhead whales can live more than 150 years, as can land tortoisesand rockfish, to name just a few. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, scientists recently discoveredthat the deep-sea corals in waters off Alaska also live a long time, andmay play a key role in maintaining healthy fish stocks.

STORY: A thousand feet below the surface of the North PacificOcean, off Alaska, live colonies of red tree coral. Some of these coralsgrow to as much as ten feet high, with branches that spread out like agiant fan. The tips of the coral are thin, delicate. In a way, the corallooks a bit like parsley.

Around the bases of these coral, rockfish dart here and there, perhapslooking for a place to hide or an easy meal. Gregor Cailliet is a marinescientist at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California. He saysAlaska's deep-sea corals, like coral everywhere, provide essential


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Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch (NPMR) Project:Age and growth in twodeep-sea,habitat-formingoctocorallian corals

Moss Landing MarineLaboratories

Radiometric Dating(Georgia PerimeterCollege)

Deep-Sea Coral: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/11.02.01deepsea-coral.html (1 of 4) [4/2/2004 6:52:09 AM]


http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/DeepSeaCoral.ram


http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/biological/80/abstract80.html






http://www.mlml.calstate.edu/

http://www.mlml.calstate.edu/

http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/geology/geo102/radio.htm



Red tree coral can reach heights greaterthan 10 feet and live several hundredyears. This section of coral is about 150years old. (Courtesy Doug Schneider,Alaska Sea Grant.)

habitat for fish.

CAILLIET: "These coralsadd habitat in that they're liketrees. So there's a lot ofstructure on the sea floor thatwouldn't be there normallythat provide habitat for otherorganisms as well, some ofwhich deep water fish feedon. You get invertebratesoccupying niches in thesecorals that are also occupiedby fishes."

Many people think of coral as plants, but that's not really true. AllenAndrews is a research associate at Moss Landing. He says that whilethey might look like plants, they're actually animals.

ANDREWS: "It's actually a whole collection of organisms livingtogether where they share food collected from the water column.They're filter-feeding organisms. These corals are not photosynthetic.They rely on collecting food from the water column."

Scientists Allen Andrews, left, and Gregor Cailliet ofMoss Landing Marine Laboratories are studying the ageand growth of corals that thrive in the deep sea.(Courtesy Doug Schneider, Alaska Sea Grant.)

Scientists have always thought corals lived a long time, but theyweren't really sure just how long the corals in Alaska's deep, coldwaters live. Recently, Andrews and Cailliet conducted studies todetermine the age of Alaska's tree corals. Their work is being donewith funding from the North Pacific Marine Research Program at theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. Allen Andrews.

ANDREWS: "The first thing we did was section them like a tree. We



Similar to the rings of atree, each of the ringsseen here in across-section of a red treecoral represent a period ofgrowth for the deep-seacoral, which is not a plantbut an animal. (CourtesyDoug Schneider, AlaskaSea Grant.)

take the trunk of the coral, which is theskeletal structure of the colony, and look atthe growth zones just like you would with atree. You count the growth zones, but that'san estimate of age. With trees we know thezones are annual, but with deep-sea coralswe don't know that. So we get estimates ofage from the growth zones in thesesections, and then we try to validate theseestimates. That's where the radiochemistrycomes in."

Radiochemistry is a complicated sciencebut essentially it involves the measure ofnaturally occurring radioactive elements inan object or an organism. By calculatingthe amount of a decayed radioactiveelement, scientists can determine its age.Using these techniques, Andrews foundthat red tree coral in the Gulf of Alaska grew slowly but lived a longtime.

ANDREWS: "The growth rate we got was 1.74 cm per year from thisone arm of the colony. Something that's two meters or so tall isprobably 150 to 200 years old."

Andrews says figuring out how old things are offers him the chance todispel people's ideas about longevity.

ANDREWS: "It's fascinating to me to determine how old things are. Inaddition, I enjoy sharing that information with people because it tendsto be shocking. I really enjoy telling them that they get to be 100, 120and some cases maybe 200 years old. It's fun being on the frontier ofthis kind of science."

Gregor Cailliet is concerned about Alaska's corals because such theytend to mature later and reproduce slowly. He says any majordisturbance, such as bottom fishing, could wreak havoc on coralcommunities and the fish species they support.

CAILLIET: "The trawling industry, in some cases, if they just gothrough these habitats, can rip out hundreds if not more of these things.If they live a long time, it will take a long time for them to recover.Recruitment to those habitats is a very slow rate. Growing up to be thesize of some of these corals takes hundreds of years."






Gregor M. Cailliet, ProfessorMoss Landing Marine Laboratories8272 Moss Landing RoadMoss Landing, CA 95039Phone: 831-632-4432Email: [email protected]

Allen Andrews, Research AssociateMoss Landing Marine Laboratories8272 Moss Landing RoadMoss Landing, CA 95039Phone: 831-632-4451Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/11.02.01deepsea-coral.html






Radio Script2001

A new technique that uses lasers to find and identify fish, suchas this school of herring, from the air is being tested in Alaska'sPrince William Sound. (Photo courtesy Alaska Sea Grant.)

Laser Fish__________________

This page contains a supplemental video clip inQuickTime format. Click on the image below toplay the QuickTime video segment.

INTRO: One of the fisheries scientists' hardest and sometimes messyjobs is to count fish. Salmon are counted one by one as they swim upclear, freshwater streams and rivers to spawn. Other fish swim in hugeschools that make individual counting impossible. Scientists tally thesefish by first catching them in nets�and then measuring their mass, orweight. But Doug Schneider reports in this week's Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio, fisheries managers may in the future rely on lasers tocount fish.

STORY: It might seem strange to use an airplane to count fish, butthat's just what scientists are doing in Alaska's Prince William Sound.Evelyn Brown is a marine scientist at the University of Alaska


Download RealAudio

Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): LIDAR Project

What is LIDAR?

Sea Grant news release

Related ASJ story

Laser Fish: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/fisheries/106/index.html



http://pcl.physics.uwo.ca/pclhtml/introlidar/introlidarf.html

http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/99news/11-03-99_ForageFishes.html

http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/99ASJ/10.29.99_ForageFish.html

Fairbanks. She's been testing a remote-sensing tool called LIDAR tosee if it can be used in planes to detect concentrations of fish.

BROWN: "This project is a pilot study to see how well theseremote-sensing tools work. We've got an imager on board as well, sowe're looking at two-dimensional surface images that can do reallywell at bird and mammal counts, and then seeing the subsurfacefeatures that they may be associated with�fish schools, plankton layers.We're here for two main goals, to test the limitations of the equipmentin Alaskan waters, what depth penetration we can get to&"

LIDAR stands for LIight Detection and Ranging. Think of LIDAR as akind of radar. While radar works by sending out radio waves thatbounce off hidden objects to reveal them, LIDAR works by sendingout low-frequency beams of light. Jim Churnside is the chief of OceanRemote Sensing with the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration. He's helped turn what was originally a tool formeasuring clouds and landmasses from space, into a tool for detectingfish and other marine life.

CHURNSIDE: "It's an analog to the acoustic echosounder. It uses ashort laser pulse instead of an acoustic pulse. We have a pulse of laserlight about six feet long, and it goes down from the bottom of theaircraft into the water, scatters and bounces off of things, includingfish. It reflects back up to the aircraft where we detect it with atelescope, and input the information into a computer."

One of the big advantages of using LIDAR to spot fish and otherobjects from airplanes is that planes can cover a lot more ocean thantraditional survey techniques that use ships. While a ship can travelonly a few miles per hour, planes can fly over 100 miles an hour.

Climb aboard a small airplane with the research team as they use LIDAR inPrince William Sound. This file is large (2.3 MB) and may take a while todownload on a slow connection.

1:56 sec; 2.3 MB


Evelyn Brown is among a group of scientists experimenting withLIDAR in the sound. Their work is aimed at improving the tools ofresource management, and is being done with funding from the NorthPacific Marine Research Program at the University of AlaskaFairbanks.

Brown says another advantage of LIDAR lies in its ability to "see"deep into the water column.

BROWN: "We were pretty surprised at the depth penetration withsome of the inside waters, seeing, I think, 35 meters. It has the




potential for, if the interest is there, surveying the surface waters andthe ecology of the surface waters. Right now, this is where a lot of theinterest is. Migratory salmon are in the upper five meters; the planktonare in the upper 50 meters. A lot of the birds and mammals associatedare near the surface, so it works really well for that."

Widespread use of LIDAR as a fish survey technique is probably still afew years off. Software programs that can quickly distinguish betweenfish, plankton, marine mammals and seabirds have yet to bedeveloped. Still, Jim Churnside says that given the high costs oftraditional ship surveys, fisheries managers probably will hear a lotmore about LIDAR in the years to come.

CHURNSIDE: "As there's more and more pressure on the fisheries,there's going to be more of a need for better information to do a betterjob at regulating the fisheries. There's not going to be a lot moremoney for ship days at sea. This is a way to increase the coverage at amuch lower cost."




Evelyn Brown, Research AssociateSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks127 O'Neill BldgFairbanks, Alaska 99775Phone: 907-474-5801Email: [email protected]

James ChurnsideOcean and Atmospheric ResearchMASC Route: R/ETLDSRC Room: 3B157325 BroadwayBoulder, CO 80305-3328Phone: 303-497-6744Email: [email protected]







The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/10.26.01lidar.html




Radio Script2001

Scientists believe subtle chemical differences in pollockearbones, called otoliths, may help fisheries managersdistinguish among the many pollock stocks that intermingle onthe North Pacific Ocean. (Photo courtesy Sue Keller, AlaskaSea Grant.)

Fingerprinting Pollock__________________

INTRO: Out on the vast North Pacific Ocean, fish from manycountries mingle together in search of food. Figuring out which fishbelong to what country would seem an impossible task. Yet, scientistsare trying to do just that when it comes to pollock. And as DougSchneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,scientists say the fish's earbone may hold the answer.

STORY: Many of us may not know what a pollock is, but most of ushave almost certainly eaten one. Ever had fish sticks? Or perhapsyou've put some imitation crabmeat in your salad? If you did, you atepollock.

Pollock is one of the ocean's most abundant fishes. Last year alone,U.S. fishermen caught more than one million tons of pollock. Most ofthat was caught in waters off Alaska. It's here that pollock from acrossthe North Pacific Ocean come to feed. And it's here that scientists facea daunting management problem. Ken Severin is a researcher at the


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Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): PollockFingerprinting Project

Kenneth Severin facultyprofile

Alaska Department ofFish and Game OtolithLaboratory

International Archive ofThermally MarkedOtoliths


http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/10.19.01pollock.html (1 of 3) [4/2/2004 6:52:20 AM]


http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/pollock.ram


http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/fisheries/74/




http://www.uaf.edu/geology/faculty/severin/index.html

http://www.uaf.edu/geology/faculty/severin/index.html

http://www.taglab.org/



http://www.rmis.org/iatmo/index.html



University of Alaska Fairbanks.

SEVERIN: "The goal of this project is to try to identify individual fishstocks, individual pollock stocks. There are about five recognizedpollock stocks in the North Pacific. One of the problems is that eventhough we know that pollock spawn in certain areas, they then kind ofswim together in a big mass. We don't know if they came from oneplace or another."

Clues to figuring out where a particular pollock comes from may liewithin the fish's hard, disk-shaped bone called the otolith, or earbone.The tiny bony disk doesn't really allow fish to hear the way humans do,but it does help them feel sound as well as maintain balance andorientation.

What's of interest to scientists isn't how fish hear, but rather it's whatthe otolith is made of, and what it can tell them about where the fishcomes from. Because while a typical otolith is made mostly ofcalcium, it also absorbs other elements�things like magnesium andstrontium�found naturally in the ocean. Ken Severin says pollock inone part of the ocean may absorb different elements, or absorbelements in different concentrations, than pollock in another part of theocean. Such differences could serve as a kind of fingerprint to revealwhere that fish came from.

SEVERIN: "There have been a lot of studies that have shown that ifyou grab fish from one area and grab fish from another area, theelemental composition of the otoliths is different. But the overallpicture is that they are incorporating these elements in abundanceroughly similar to the surrounding seawater. So if fish are living inareas that have different oceanographic composition, differentchemical composition, from place to place, we should be able to pickthis up in their otoliths. Since these otoliths contain an entire lifehistory of the fish, ideally we should be able to trace the elementalabundance from the inside of the otolith to the outside, and say the fishwas here at one point in its life and there at another point in its life."

Severin is among a group of scientists trying to understand just whatthose otolith differences are among the pollock stocks that interminglein the North Pacific. Their work is aimed at better managing pollock,and is being conducted with funding from the North Pacific MarineResearch Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

SEVERIN: "It's important because there are about five differentcountries fishing pollock. And of course when you get differentcountries fishing, a lot of them are going to say well, all of the fishborn off Alaska belong to the U.S. and all of the fish born off ofCanada belong to the Canadians. This is the exact same thing that'shappened to the salmon fisheries. How do you divide up the fish in an



Fishermen harvest someone million tons of pollockfrom the North PacificOcean each year. Fisheriesmanagers would like toknow more about justwhere these pollock comefrom. (Photo courtesyAlaska Sea Grant)

equitable fashion between the differentcountries?"

Severin says it may also be possible to useotoliths as a way to distinguish betweenAlaska's many regional pollock stocks,such as pollock from Prince WilliamSound and those from the Shelikof Straitnear Kodiak Island.

Ultimately, Severin hopes the techniqueshe and his colleagues are perfecting can beused to distinguish among all of thepollock stocks that live together in the vastNorth Pacific Ocean.

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science JourneysRadio, a production of the Alaska SeaGrant Program and the University ofAlaska Fairbanks. I'm Doug Schneider.

Audio version and related Web sites(sidebar at top right)


Kenneth Severin, DirectorAdvanced Instrumentation LabUniversity of Alaska FairbanksGeology and Geophysics Department308 NSF Box 5780Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5780Phone: 907-474-5820Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/10.19.01pollock.html





Radio Script2001

Courtesy American Bear Association.

Bears In My Backyard__________________

INTRO: For people who live in Alaska, encounters with wildlife arejust part of the daily routine. It's one of the reasons many of us endurelong winter months�for the chance to see a moose nose pressed againsta window, or a porcupine waddle through the yard, or a fox, mousedangling from its jaw, lope across the road. But sometimes, encounterswith wildlife aren't exactly welcome. In this week's Arctic ScienceJourneys radio, writer and editor Andy Hall recalls one eye-openingexperience with a hungry bear.

STORY: A feral cat had been digging through our trash, had beatenup our delicate house kitty, and was growing more brazen with eachencounter.

Its latest offense was a few nights earlier when it slipped into the housethrough Speck's cat door and ate food right out of her dish. So, when Iheard the scratching and pawing in the carport one morning on my wayto work, I figured it was my chance to teach the outlaw feline a lesson.


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American BearAssociation

Bears in my Backyard: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.alaskamagazine.com/

http://www.americanbear.org/

http://www.americanbear.org/

I selected a rock hefty enough to inflict sufficient pain, crept to thecorner, cocked my arm and leaped. Expecting to find the cat pawingthrough an overturned garbage can, I was surprised to find myself faceto snout with a black bear.

We locked eyes for one strong heartbeat before the bear spun and ranout the back of the carport, tromped through the vegetable garden andbounded up the mountainside. At least, I think that's what it did. I'mnot sure because I didn't hang around to watch. I was busy retreatingmyself, backpedaling toward the front door.

Once inside, I alerted my wife, Melissa, and we bounded up the stepsto the second floor to scan the backyard from the safer vantage point.We got to the deck just in time to see the animal's back end disappearinto the trees and underbrush. I waited a good half-hour before weagreed the bear was gone for good and I could leave for work. It wasthen I realized that I was still clutching the rock tightly in my hand.

The encounter was my fault. We had eaten moose the night before andI made the mistake of putting the bloody freezer wrap out in thegarbage can. I thought we could get away with one night of smellytrash. I was wrong.

You'd think I'd know better�I grew up here�but every now and then Iget a little sloppy. Here, and anywhere else wild animals share spacewith people, such sloppiness can result in tragedy, usually for theanimal. Occasionally for the human.

I was lucky to run into that bear. The encounter was like a tap on theshoulder and wag of the finger from Mother Nature reminding me tobe careful because powerful forces are at work in the natural world.That bear outweighed me by at least 200 pounds and if the back of thecarport hadn't been open, I might not be telling such a lighthearted tale.

Now, we're careful about what we put in the trash. And in the yearssince that encounter we still see an occasional bear pass by on the hillabove our house, but none has given us a second look.

Oh, and that feral cat? We never saw it again. I don't know whether thebear had anything to do with that, but I like the idea.

OUTRO: When not outrunning hungry bears, Andy Hall is theexecutive editor of Alaska magazine. He and his wife, Melissa, live inAnchorage. Andy is a regular contributor to Arctic Science JourneysRadio, which is produced by the Alaska Sea Grant Program and theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks.





Andy Hall, Executive EditorAlaska Magazine619 East Ship Creek Ave., Suite 329Anchorage, Alaska 99501Phone: 907-272-6070Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/10.12.01backyard-bears.html





Radio Script2001

Click on map to see larger image.

Exploring Alaska's Undersea Volcanoes__________________

NOTE: The following story is about research that occurred in1999, when the deep-submergence vehicle Alvin conductedresearch in the Gulf of Alaska. The research was funded by theWest Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research Center at theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. Alvin is tentatively scheduled toreturn to Alaska waters in 2002. More about Alvin's 2002schedule...

INTRO: Just off the coast of Alaska's Kodiak Island, the North PacificOcean quite literally drops into an abyss more than 10,000 feet deep.Rising up from the ocean floor are undersea mountains, calledseamounts. One of the oldest and biggest is Patton seamount. As DougSchneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,scientists used the submersible that found the Titanic to see theundersea mountain for the first time.

STORY: At over six feet tall, Randy Keller isn't the first person you'dexpect to willingly cram himself into a seven-foot titanium sphere for aten-hour journey to the ocean floor. But as a geologist with OregonState University, he wasn't about to miss the chance to see one ofAlaska's largest undersea mountains.


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Video clips(Videos requireQuickTime. May take afew minutes to downloadbefore playing.)

Patton seamount 3-Danimation (28MB).

Life on the PattonSeamount 1 (11.8 MB)

Life on the PattonSeamount 1 2 (7.4 MB)

(Courtesy Oregon StateUniversity)

Topo maps (PDFs)

Just like mountains onland, undersea mountainscan be mapped to showtopographical features.These two topographicalmaps were made to showPatton seamountelevation changes.

Topographical map 1(PDF)

Topographical map 2(PDF)

Exploring Alaska's Undersea Volcanoes: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/topo1.pdf




KELLER: "The first impression when you climb into the sub is justhow incredibly small it is. It borders on claustrophobic. It's only aboutseven feet in diameter. About half of that is taken up by electronic gear�cameras, recorders and sensors�and so it's a very confining space.That's what you first notice, but almost instantly you're distracted byall of the incredible stuff that's going on around you. After about 30seconds I didn't notice how small the space was anymore."

The submarine Keller was in is probably the world's most famousdeep-sea submersible. Called Alvin by its handlers at the Woods HoleOceanographic Institution, the submersible is built to withstand oceanpressures down to nearly 15,000 feet. Ever since it was built in 1964,scientists have used it to explore some of the deepest regions of thesea. In 1986, Alvin made history when it located the wreck of theTitanic ocean liner, lost in 1912 when it struck an iceberg off the coastof Newfoundland.

On this particular cruise, Keller is studying the geology of the Pattonseamount, a 10,000-foot extinct volcano in the central Gulf of Alaska,about 200 miles southeast of Kodiak Island. Although there to learnhow the volcano formed, he was amazed by the variety of creaturesliving on the seamount's slopes.

KELLER: "When you hit the bottom and they turn on the lights, it'sjust astonishing how much there is around you. You see rockyoutcroppings and there's life everywhere�sponges and sea stars. You'rejust overwhelmed by how much there is to see and you're trying to takeit all in. It's pitch black all the time and only a few degrees abovefreezing. It's under phenomenal pressure from the depth. And yetthere's so much life that it's just amazing. And I'm not even abiologist."

Scientists believe that Patton and nearby undersea mountains got theirstart millions of years ago off the coast of what today is Oregon. Asthe massive Pacific plate slid over a particularly hot spot in the earth'score, Keller says magma bubbled up through the earth's crust andcreated the seamounts.

KELLER: "The theory is that it's a hot spot, a point source deep withinthe earth that is sending up a plume of lava or magma. And that'sburning a hole through the tectonic plate as it moves around. So youend up with a conveyor-belt-like effect where the plate is movingalong the surface and you get volcanic activity in one place at a time.You end up with this trail of volcanic seamounts that trail away fromwhere the hot spot is. We think that's how the seamounts in the Gulf ofAlaska formed because you can trace this trail of seamounts fromwhere they are oldest up near Kodiak Island, and they get younger asyou go toward where the hot spot is now, off the coast of Oregon.

(Courtesy Oregon StateUniversity)

Alvin facts

Continuously operated bythe Woods HoleOceanographicInstitution, the originalAlvin deep-submergencevehicle went into servicein 1964, and wasdesigned to operate atdepths to 6,000 feet.Although the vehicle itselfhas undergone manyconversions and changesdesigned to extend itsoperating depth, thename Alvin has stood thetest of time. During its 37years, the submersiblehas made more than3,800 dives. Today, Alvinis certified by the U.S.Navy to dive to 4,500meters or 14,764 feet.That's nearly three milesbeneath the oceansurface.

Related Web sites

Research Vessel Atlantis

Deep-SubmergenceVehicle Alvin

Alvin photo gallery

West Coast and PolarRegions UnderseaResearch Center



http://www.marine.whoi.edu/ships/atlantis/atlantis.htm



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/alvin/specialed.html

http://www.wcnurc.uaf.edu:8000/index.html



At 30 million years old, the Patton seamount is the oldest in an arcsome 200 miles long. The youngest, of course, is the seamountpresently being formed over the hot spot off the Oregon coast. Inbetween, seamounts date from 8 to about 20 million years old.

For colleague Robert Duncan, a marine geologist from Oregon State, atrip to the seamounts is a journey of discovery.

DUNCAN: "Being the first one, the first human being to have thatview out the portal, that you were the first to see that patch of theocean floor, to see that collection of rocks and animals is a thrill.Because the ocean is so vast and there are so few diving missions thatevery time we go to a new feature, we see things for the first time."

For those of us not lucky enough to score a ride on Alvin and see thePatton seamount for ourselves, Keller and Duncan have created a 3-Dcomputer visualization that can be seen on the Internet.

DUNCAN: "It's an animated fly-through, as if we were able to removeall of the seawater and we're in a vehicle that allows us to fly downaround the volcano and examine the volcanic spires and the faults andthe cliffs from any orientation and any direction."




Randy KellerOregon State UniversityOceans Admin BuildingCorvallis, Oregon 97331Phone: 541-737-2354Email: [email protected]: http://ridge.oce.orst.edu/rkeller/

Robert DuncanOregon State UniversityOceans Admin BuildingCorvallis, Oregon 97331Phone: 541-737-5206Email: [email protected]

Arctic Science Journeys is a radio service highlighting science,culture, and the environment of the circumpolar north. Produced bythe Alaska Sea Grant College Program and the University of Alaska




http://ridge.oce.orst.edu/rkeller/


Fairbanks.


The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/10.05.01seamounts.html




Radio Script2001

Paleontologist Tony Fiorillo believes this to be a fossilizedfootprint of a duck-billed hadrosaur, common some 70 millionyears ago. The track is the first evidence of dinosaurs found insouthwest Alaska. (Photo courtesy Tony Fiorillo, Dallas Museumof Natural History.)

Alaska Dinosaur Discovery__________________

INTRO: Scientists searching for dinosaurs in Alaska have foundfossilized bones and even footprints left behind in ancient mud turnedto stone. But nearly all of these discoveries were made on Alaska'sNorth Slope. Late this summer, that all changed when a Dallas, Texas,paleontologist made a remarkable discovery in southwest Alaska.Doug Schneider has more in this week's Arctic Science JourneysRadio.

STORY: At first, it seemed like two years spent looking for evidenceof dinosaurs in the Aniakchak National Monument, some 400 milessouthwest of Anchorage, would go unrewarded. Tony Fiorillo, apaleontologist from the Dallas Museum of Natural History, had cometo this remote corner of Alaska the year before, and had found nothing.And this time, after an incredibly scenic four-day raft trip through theheart of the monument, Fiorillo was again about to go home


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More about Tony Fiorillo'sAlaska dinosauradventure

Dallas Museum of NaturalHistory

University of AlaskaMuseum

Aniakchak NationalMonument and Preserve

Hadrosaurs at the AlaskaMuseum of NaturalHistory

Related ASJ story

Arctic Dinosaurs (1998)

Alaska Dinosaur Discovery: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.dallasdino.org/

http://www.dallasdino.org/

http://www.uaf.edu/museum/index2.html

http://www.uaf.edu/museum/index2.html

http://www.nps.gov/ania/

http://www.nps.gov/ania/

http://www.alaskamuseum.org/webed/dinosaurs/hadrosaur.html



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/98ASJ/10.1.98_Dinosaurs.html

empty-handed.

FIORILLO: "The trip was spectacular. I just kept thinking gee, it's toobad we didn't find what I'd hoped we would. So when we got to thecoast, we had about three hours before the float plane was to pick usup, and I said I'd like to walk the beach. A woman who works for thePark Service, Amanda Austin, came with me. We found somebeautiful leaf fossils. While she was looking at those, I wandered overto the next point to get my bearings. And it was at this next point that Ilooked down and saw this thing staring at me."

That "thing" was the footprint of a small hadrosaur, a type ofplant-noshing duck-billed dinosaur that that lived during theCretaceous period some 70 million years ago.

FIORILLO: "My first thought was, 'Oh my God, I think I found it.'Amanda was several hundred yards down the beach, so she didn't hearme let out my Whoop! of excitement. I looked and looked at it andfinally set my pack down and walked away to calm down. Then Iwalked back to the track and asked myself why I thought it was atrack. Then I got out my camera and started photographing it fromevery angle I could think of."

The track looks as though it was made by a giant chicken. Impressionsof three large toes made in the mud millions of years ago are today castin solid rock.

FIORILLO: "To me it looked obvious. That doesn't mean it would beobvious to everybody. It was on a block of rock that was flipped over.It had fallen out of the cliff. It had three toes and it was raised up fromthe block, so the track was upside down. It's a hind foot, but on thisblock there were a couple of other tracks. They were smaller and of theright general shape that they could be the hand tracks. But they're notnearly as convincing as the three-toed hind foot."

After examining the footprints, Fiorillo brought Amanda Austin to thesite to witness the discovery.

AUSTIN: "For a second he couldn't find it. We weren't sure where itwas, and then he found it. It certainly looked like a footprint to me. Itactually sticks up at you. It doesn't press down into the ground. It hasthese three toes on it, that are super-big. They are about 14 inchesacross."

Fiorillo believes the footprint was most likely made by a youngduck-billed dinosaur, perhaps 25 to 30 feet long. Adults are thought tohave grown to 40 feet long and weighed four tons. Scientists believeduck-bills traveled in great herds, grazing as they went along.



FIORILLO: "They're called duck-billed dinosaurs their mouth is flaredout so you get this bill-like structure. They're plant eaters. They hadhundreds of teeth in their mouth so they made for very efficientchewing animals of plants. They're sometimes referred to as the cowsof the Cretaceous because they're so common."

Common 70 million years ago, maybe. But it's certainly not easy tofind evidence of them in the Arctic today. In Alaska, the mostabundant dinosaur fossils have been found in the Liscomb fields alongthe North Slope, named for the geologist who first discovered them. In1994, fossil hunters in southcentral Alaska dug up bones belonging toLizzie, a 90-million-year-old hadrosaur. But until now, no one hasfound evidence of dinosaurs in southwest Alaska.

FIORILLO: "The significance of the find is that we are at least 800miles away from the North Slope locality."

Fiorillo hopes the discovery of this hadrosaur footprint will lead tofurther dinosaur discoveries in the area.

FIORILLO: "To me, Alaska is a great big paleontological candy store.After this summer's find, I'd say the welcome mat is out. We just can'twait to get back to work and find more. It's just so exciting."

Ultimately, he and colleagues at the University of Alaska Museum inFairbanks hope the tracks, fossils and other artifacts they find will helpthem build a picture of what life was like during Alaska's dinosaurheyday.




Dr. Anthony R. Fiorillo, PaleontologistDallas Museum of Natural History3535 Grand AvenueDallas, Texas 75210-1006Phone: 214-421-DINO (3466) Extension 234Email: [email protected]

Amanda Austin, Resource Management SpecialistNational Park ServiceAniakchak National Monument and PreserveKing Salmon, AlaskaPhone: 907-246-2131Email: [email protected]





Dr. Roland Gangloff, CuratorEarth SciencesUniversity of Alaska MuseumUniversity of Alaska FairbanksFairbanks, Alaska 99775Phone: 907-474-7862Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/09.21.01dinosaur.html





Radio Script2001

Fire ecologist Eric Kasischke of theUniversity of Maryland inspects soilfollowing a forest fire near Delta,Alaska. Northern forest fires arebelieved to contribute to globalwarming by releasing significantamounts of the greenhouse gas carbondioxide to the atmosphere. (Photocourtesy Sonya Senkowsky,AlaskaWriter)

Alaska Fire Research__________________

INTRO: While massive forest fires have so far ravaged more than twomillion acres across the American West in one of the worst fire seasonin years, wildfires in Alaska have scorched just over 200,000 acresacross the state. Typically, Alaska fires are among the nation's largest,with single burns blackening hundreds of thousands of acres. As SonyaSenkowsky reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,northern forest fires could be a significant source of the greenhousegas, carbon dioxide.


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National Interagency FireCenter

AlaskaWriter

Alaska Fire Research: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/08.24.01fire-research.html (1 of 4) [4/2/2004 6:52:37 AM]


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http://www.nifc.gov/information.html

http://www.nifc.gov/information.html

http://www.alaskawriter.com/

STORY: It's been seven years since lightning triggered the fire thattorched a 22,000-acre swath of boreal spruce forest in Interior Alaska,about 90 miles south of Fairbanks. Fire ecologist Eric Kasischke(Kaz/ISS/kee) of the University of Maryland has come to see how theforest is regrowing.

KASISCHKE: "This site's coming back like a gangbuster now."

A shovel-full of earth gives him basic information about the site, fromgrowing conditions and drainage, to the kind of soil left behind after aburn. Seven years ago, this area was covered by a stand of mostlyblack spruce trees, with a forest floor carpeted in thick moss. Thencame the fire. Researcher Scott Goetz, also from the University ofMaryland, says the blaze destroyed almost everything in its path.

GOETZ: "The ground fire came through and basically smolderedthrough here and consumed all the organic layer and then the roots ofthe trees, and the trees fell over. So we're walking through a lot ofsnags with this meter-high deciduous regrowth coming in."

When this kind of northern forest burns, the trees aren't the only thingsto go up in smoke, says Kasischke.

KASISCHKE: "Part of what burns are these organic soils. And theseorganic soils form over hundreds to thousands of years. So when theyburn, it's going to take hundreds to thousands of years for them tore-accumulate."

Contained in these soils is a storehouse of organic carbon, the result ofhundreds of years of accumulated forest litter, which in the borealforest is kept from decomposing by the moist soil and frozen ground"called "permafrost." Burning the carbon-rich soil releases carbondioxide, which, when released into the atmosphere, is believed tocontribute to global warming.

Traditionally, models of climate change haven't accounted for borealforest fires as a major source of greenhouse gases. It was thoughtlow-fire years would cancel out the negative effects of high-fire years.Many models, in fact, still count on the boreal forest, which stretchesacross Alaska, Canada and Russia, as a "sink," or a repository, forcarbon. That's because the carbon dioxide that trees absorb from the airends up in their roots, wood fiber and leaves.

Kasischke has found evidence that the effects of low-fire and high-fireyears do not cancel each other out. His research indicates a pattern:Big fire years in the boreal forest come in cycles, and they areincreasing in severity as the northern climate warms.

KASISCHKE: "When you're looking at changes in amounts of



greenhouse and other gases in the atmosphere that originate from fireson a global basis, these large fire years in the boreal forest are verysignificant."

Just how significant is the question that Kasischke and otherresearchers are still seeking to answer. At one burn site, called the"Buffalo Field" site because of the bison that graze nearby, Scott Goetzlooks over an array of solar cells networked among a maze of burnedand toppled trees along the ground. Here and there, tree saplings andfireweed poke up through the charred forest.

GOETZ: "Every 10 seconds it'll click off a measurement. Then it's allrecorded and we come out and download it."

The data-logging instrument records the amount of light reaching theground. The measurement helps scientists estimate the amount ofphotosynthesis and carbon uptake taking place in the new plants.

GOETZ: "So we get a pretty good handle on the amount of light that'sabsorbed and then we're able to relate that to the production and carbonuptake of these stands."

These and other readings from both burned and unburned sites will becompared to those collected by NASA satellites that measure plantgrowth from space. In the long run, Kasischke hopes to betterunderstand the relationships between northern fires and climate.

KASISCHKE: "The weather in this region has been changing. It haswarmed significantly over the last 20 to 30 years. The increase intemperature, combined with the increase in fire frequency, is just goingto change the boreal forests up here. And that's what we're trying tounderstand. How are they going to change, or how are they changing?"

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mSonya Senkowsky.



Scott Goetz, Associate Research ProfessorGeography Department1165 Le Frak HallUniversity of MarylandCollege Park, MD 20742-8225Phone: 301-405-1297Email: [email protected]

Eric Kasischke, Associate Professor




Geography Department1135 Le Frak HallUniversity of MarylandCollege Park, MD 20742-8225Phone: 301-405-2179Email: [email protected]

Sonya Senkowsky, Science WriterAlaskaWriterP.O. Box 140030Anchorage, Alaska 99514Phone: 907-830-7355Email: [email protected]: http://www.alaskawriter.com



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/08.24.01fire-research.html







Radio Script2001

Science diver Cathy Hegwer,foreground, and researcher EloiseBrown prepare to dive to the bottomof the Bering Sea to study theimpacts of bottom trawling on flatfishhabitat. (Photo courtesy GaryEdwards, F/V Big Valley.)

Trawling for Answers__________________

INTRO: Environmentalists and fishermen have argued for years overwhether dragging nets along the sea floor causes long-term harm to theocean. Scientists in Alaska, where more than half the nation's seafoodis harvested, recently joined with fishermen in an experiment to seefirsthand the impacts of trawling on the Bering Sea. Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio producer Doug Schneider went along, and files thisreport.

STORY: In the wheelhouse of the research vessel Big Valley, skipperGary Edwards does his best to keep pace with the fishing trawlerVaerdal. One hundred feet below, on the ocean floor, the Vaerdal’s netis busy scooping up fish.

EDWARDS: "We’re getting a good picture now, the transponder is


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Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR)

NPMR Trawl Study Website

Trawling for Answers: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/Trawling.ram


http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr



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going. So far so good."

Edwards needs to stay close to the Vaerdal so that the transponder onthe fishing net can relay the net’s exact position on the seafloor. Butit’s not easy. Despite the drag on the 132-foot bottom trawler, Vaerdalskipper Gene Anderson is pulling away.

ANDERSON: "I’m going a bit fast here because we’re going with thecurrent."

Hours later, researchers deploy a camera-equipped remotely operatedvehicle, or ROV, to see what sort of damage the trawl net may havecaused to the seafloor. In the ROV’s control shack, a trailer chained tothe deck of the Big Valley, graduate student Eloise Brown watches thetelevision monitor.

BROWN: "We’re going perpendicular to all the trawl tracks right now.We’re not going down the center of it. There’s one, there’s a furrow!And so, you have the doors, which are these big metal objects thatkeep the net spread wide. So if we’re crossing the trawl trackperpendicular, we’ll probably come across a furrow. That may havebeen a door furrow. And that should leave a track, because they arereally heavy, really large."

Observations such as these, along with a host of scientific data aboutthe structure of the seabed and the tiny marine life that live on theocean bottom, are all part of a study aimed at answering a question onmany people’s minds these days: Is dragging a net across the oceanfloor harmful? Sue Hills is a leader of the study and a marine scienceprofessor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

HILLS: "There’s been a lot of interest in the last few years about theeffects of fishing. Ten years ago people said the effects of fishingmeant taking out large numbers of fish. Then people started looking atthe effects of the fishing gear—what does the gear actually do? We’rejust trying to test one hypothesis: What difference does it make to docommercial flatfish trawling in flatfish habitat?

Researchers are concentrating on a one-square-mile chunk of oceanfloor near the Round Island State Walrus Sanctuary in Alaska's BristolBay. The area is ideal because no one has fished within 12 miles of thesanctuary since 1992. By studying the area before fishing takes place,scientists can measure the impacts after fishing.

Helping with the study are fishermen themselves. The GroundfishForum, a trawler trade association, volunteered the trawler Vaerdaland provided Brown with a research scholarship. Some $250,000 inadditional funding comes from the North Pacific Marine ResearchProgram, set up by Congress to unravel the causes of Bering Sea fish,



mammal and seabird declines.

For a week prior to the Vaerdal's arrival, Brown used scuba divers andunderwater cameras to document virtually every detail of the seafloor.They measured the size of the grains of sand and mud and the amountof chlorophyll being produced by algae, seaweed and other plants.They also used a device called an echosounder to measure the densityof the seafloor. If trawling compacts or stirs up the bottom, it couldalter the makeup of invertebrates that live there, and that could alterthe mix of fish in the area.

Finally, researchers used a small dredge-like device called a VanVeengrab to snatch a chunk of the seafloor in order to learn what sort ofcreatures live there. Science diver Cathy Hegwer.

HEGWER: "What we’re doing is taking a VanVeen grab—it just takesa scoop out of the bottom of the seafloor. You rinse off the sedimentsand you’re left with the macro invertebrates. We then go through toidentify the species to see if there are any difference in the fauna froma trawled area and the fauna from an untrawled area. They’d be thefirst to show if there had been any disturbance to the sediment becausethat’s where they live. What we’ve got here is a sample from a recentlytrawled area. We have some sand dollars, some gastropods, and somebivalves."

Months later, in her lab at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, EloiseBrown and a small army of technicians have viewed hours ofvideotape and processed hundreds of samples. While obvious changeswere hard to pinpoint, Brown says trawling did alter the seafloor insubtle ways. One indication of change is that chlorophyll—needed forphotosynthesis—was redistributed in the wake of trawling.

BROWN: "Whereas there was no net change in the amount ofchlorophyll throughout this two-kilometer patch, each stationresponded differently. Some stations increased in chlorophyll andsome stations decreased in chlorophyll. And that’s what you wouldexpect. In trawling you have a big net come by on the bottom,re-suspends sediments. Some of the stations had chlorophyll removedwhile others had chlorophyll deposited. I thought that was aninteresting result. Obviously there was some disturbance andvariability is an indication of disturbance."

Sue Hills says people shouldn’t be surprised that damage wasn’tespecially obvious, considering the area they studied is flat, featurelesssand prone to severe winter storms that routinely mix up the sedimentsanyway.

But that doesn’t let bottom trawlers off the hook. While trawling mighthave minimal impacts on sandy bottoms, it might very well have real



impacts on areas dominated by corals and rocky bottoms. Brown saysit's important to know how trawling impacts all of the habitats wherefishermen catch fish.




Eloise BrownUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesFairbanks, Alaska 99775Phone: 907-474-5926Email: [email protected]

Dr. Sue HillsUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesFairbanks, Alaska 99775Phone: 907-474-5106Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/08.17.01trawling.html






Radio Script2001

__________________

Kittiwake Contrast__________________

INTRO: There's a maxim that says the key to success is location,location, location. That may be as true for the survival of seabirds inAlaska's Bering Sea as it is for business. As Doug Schneider reports inthis week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, scientists are trying tounderstand why seabirds on one Bering Sea island are flourishingwhile seabirds on another island are declining.

STORY: Saint George Island is a 12-mile-long promontory in theheart of Alaska's Bering Sea, some 300 miles north of the AleutianIsland chain. Saint George's steep cliffs make perfect nesting places formillions of red- and black-legged kittiwakes. In fact, 80 percent of theworld's kittiwakes make Saint George their home.

In recent years, however, Saint George's kittiwake population has beendeclining. Scientists theorize the declines may be linked to dramaticchanges in the productivity of the Bering Sea that has made foodharder to come by.

Yet, to the south, a much smaller population of kittiwakes seems to bethriving on Bogoslof Island, a one-mile long dimple in the vast sea.Vernon Byrd, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, isamong a cadre of scientists trying to find out why seabirds are doingwell in one place but not the other.

BYRD: "The idea was to take a look at how kittiwakes are respondingto environmental conditions. Our objective was to contrast populationsat two locations that are geographically close together in the BeringSea, but that had different oceanographic characteristics and hadhistoric population trends that were different."

Although both islands are in the Bering Sea, that's about all the twohave in common. While Saint George sits atop the outer continentalshelf, where the water is relatively shallow, Bogoslof teeters atopwater thousands of feet deep. Here, upwelling currents bring nutrientsand fish to the surface, where they're easy prey for hungry kittiwakes.

BYRD: "We've seen populations change like this. The question is why.


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North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): Seabird study

Kittiwake Contrast: Arctic Science Journeys Radio

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The next step is to look at productivity at the site where they haveincreased. In other words, if it's very different at Bogoslof then we canconclude that the food web is somehow not affected by the same thingsthat have caused it to be less productive for the kittiwakes around SaintGeorge. So, it will be a series of these comparisons that will ultimatelyallow us to understand the ecosystem processes that cause thesechanges."

While some researchers have focused on capturing, measuring andbanding chicks, others have set their sights on understanding just whatkittiwakes are eating�to see if there are differences in kittiwake dietbetween the two islands. They could do this the old-fashioned way�bykilling dozens of seabirds and examining their stomach contents. ButSara Iverson, a physiologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia,Canada, has found a better way.

IVERSON: "I've found that fatty acids, which are sort of the buildingblocks of fat, can reveal a great deal of information about an animal'sdiet, especially as you move up the food chain. There are roughlyabout 70 fatty acids that can be identified. They differ basicallyaccording to ecosystem and species feeding habits. So what happens isyou get herring that feed on one sort of diet, and you get pollock thatfeed on another. And because fatty acids travel up the food chainintact, the fat that is stored in the predator begins to reflect and looklike a mixture of what it's consuming in its diet."

Without killing the seabird, Iverson is able to pluck a small amount offat from the bird. The fat sample is sent to a lab where techniciansproduce a profile of the fatty acids contained in the seabird's tissues.From that, she can tell what the seabird ate�not just that day, but overthe last several weeks.

IVERSON: "For stomach contents, you have to kill the animal, and itonly gives you a snapshot of what it's recently eaten, not necessarilywhat it's been making a living by. Fatty acids provide an integration ofdiet over a longer period of time. We're trying to use this as a tool tosee what these birds are doing in these different areas."

Of course, before researchers could examine a piece of seabird fat andtell you what it's been eating, they first had to measure the fatty acidsof the seabird's prey. This gave them a kind of fingerprint to look for.

IVERSON: "It's kind of a pattern-matching issue. You take a fatsample from the predator and try to figure out what types of species it'seating and what levels of species it's eating."

Sara Iverson and Vernon Byrd say understanding the diets of the twoseabird colonies will go a long way toward understanding how theBering Sea ecosystem works. Their project is funded by the North



Pacific Marine Research Program, established by Congress to pinpointthe causes of Bering Sea changes and species declines. They sayscientists will monitor the production of chicks and their growth to seehow the two colonies fare over time.




Sara IversonDalhousie UniversityDepartment of BiologyHalifax, NS B3H 4JlCANADAPhone: 902-494-2566Email: [email protected] University Web site: http://www.dal.ca/

Vernon ByrdUnited States Fish and Wildlife ServiceAnchorage, AlaskaPhone: (907) 235-6546Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/08.03.01kittiwake.html




http://www.dal.ca/



Radio Script2001

__________________

Mercury in Pike__________________

INTRO: Scientists recently set out to see just how much mercuryseveral species of Alaska fish, including salmon and pike, had in theirlivers and flesh. While salmon were given a clean bill of health,researchers say high levels of mercury found in a few pike underscoresthe need for a more comprehensive study. Doug Schneider has more inthis week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: The mercury was found in the livers and muscle of 21 piketaken from tributaries of the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers inwestern Alaska. Sathy Naidu is a marine scientist at the University ofAlaska Fairbanks, and leader of the study. He says some of the piketested had levels of mercury higher than what the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration considers safe for human consumption.

NAIDU: "Some of the numbers we are getting are on the threshold ofconcern."

Levels of mercury in freshwater fish muscle. Click on imageabove to load larger version. For a more detailed explanation ofthe measurements shown in these charts, see the supplementalsalmon study page. (Courtesy Xioming Zhang, UAF ChemistryDepartment.)


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Related reading

Studies show little risk ineating Alaska fish (PDFfile)

Related Web sites

Facts about Northern Pike

Mercury and National FishAdvisories Statement(Alaska Division of PublicHealth)

EPA Mercury Web site

FDA: Mercury in Fish:Cause For Concern?

EPA Seafood Informationand Resources

FDA: Action Levels forPoisonous or DeleteriousSubstances in HumanFood

National Listing of Fishand Wildlife ConsumptionAdvisories

Agency for Toxic

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Scientists measured concentrations of both total mercury (THg) andamounts of its more toxic form, methyl mercury (MeHg). High levelsof mercury are known to cause severe developmental disorders in thefetus, as well as brain and kidney damage.

The FDA considers levels of methyl mercury in fish higher than onepart per million to be a potential danger to human health. While mostof the Kuskokwim River pike tested just below this threshold, all six ofthe pike sampled from the Yukon River had methyl mercury levelsbetween 1.4 and 2.1 parts per million. Naidu says he doesn't know whyYukon River pike had more mercury than pike from the KuskokwimRiver.

Stephen Jewett, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks,collected the samples. He says pike probably accumulated mercurydirectly from the river and from their prey.

JEWETT: "Most likely it's from naturally occurring mercury. Mercuryis bound up in the form of cinnabar. Cinnabar is quite prevalentthroughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim drainage. While there's no mininggoing on in the lower Yukon for mercury or cinnabar, there are someold mercury mines along the Kuskokwim drainage. So I suspect themercury is coming from leaching or erosion of sediments along boththose rivers."

Sample collection sites in Western Alaska. Click image to loadlarger version. (Courtesy Xioming Zhang, UAF ChemistryDepartment.)

With this year's salmon returns to western Alaska among the lowest ina decade, Jewett says he's concerned that some Alaska subsistencefishermen may turn to pike.

JEWETT: "There's a good chance that people who rely on salmon tofeed themselves and their dogs might take more pike, more freshwater

Substances and DiseaseRegistry

EPA National Advice onMercury in FreshwaterFish

EPA ConsumptionAdvisories

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): Mercury study

UAF Chemistry andBiochemistry Department

UAF School of Fisheriesand Ocean Sciences

What Is Mercury?(Source: U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency)

Mercury is a toxic metal and anatural element, commonly seenas a shiny, silver-white, odorlessliquid metal. Mercury is apersistent, bioaccumulative, andtoxic (PBT) pollutant.

Why are we concerned aboutmercury?Mercury affects the nervoussystem. Methyl mercury is achemical species thatbioaccumulates in fish. Fishconsumption advisories are ineffect for mercury in thousands oflakes and livers, including much ofthe Great Lakes ecosystem.

What harmful effects canmercury have on us?" May cause cancer" Damages the stomach and largeintestine" Permanently damages the brainand kidneys" Permanently harms unbornchildren" Can cause lung damage,increased blood pressure andheart rate.

How are we exposed tomercury?" By eating contaminated fish andshellfish" Accidental mercury spills" Incinerators and facilitiesburning Hg-containing fuels (i.e.,coal or other fossil fuels,mercury-containing wastes)



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species, when there are dwindling supplies of salmon. There could be abig shift in the consumption of pike."

John Middaugh is the chief epidemiologist with the Alaska Division ofPublic Health. He says that while the study is useful, not enough pikewere sampled to draw any firm conclusions. He believes people shouldcontinue to eat pike and other fish because, he says, the health benefitsfar outweigh any possible downside.

MIDDAUGH: "Certain species of fish like pike occasionally havelevels of methyl mercury that might exceed one part per million, butall of the monitoring data in Alaska show that people's exposure levelshave been very low. So at this time, we don't intend to have anyspecific advisories regarding any specific size or species of fishbecause the benefits of consumption so outweigh any possibletheoretical risks."

Scientists also tested grayling and whitefish from the lower Yukon andKuskokwim rivers, and found no significant levels of mercury in eitherspecies.

Stephen Jewett, Sathy Naidu, and university colleagues John Kelly,Xioming Zhang and Larry Duffy conducted the study with fundingfrom the North Pacific Marine Research Program. Stephen Jewett saysthe findings show that more fish from other areas of the state need tobe tested.

JEWETT: "The only two systems that we looked at for pike were theYukon and Kuskokwim. I don't have any reason to doubt that youwouldn't see high levels in other systems throughout Alaska."

Results of salmon study




Dr. Sathy Naidu, professorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksInstitute of Marine ScienceRoom 335 Irving IIFairbanks, AK 99775-7220Phone: 907-474-7032Email: [email protected] profile: http://www.sfos.uaf.edu./directory/faculty/naidu/

" In some cases, unborn childrenare exposed through the mother'sblood and infants may be exposedthrough breast milk.





http://www.sfos.uaf.edu./directory/faculty/naidu/

Dr. Stephen Jewett, research professorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksInstitute of Marine ScienceRoom 118 O'Neill Bldg.Fairbanks, AK 99775-7220Phone: 907-474-7841Email:[email protected] profile: http://www.sfos.uaf.edu./directory/faculty/jewett/

Xioming ZhangUniversity of Alaska FairbanksChemistry and Biochemistry Department192 Natural Sciences FacilityFairbanks, AK 99775

Dr. Larry Duffy, professorChemistry and Biochemistry DepartmentUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks192 Natural Sciences FacilityFairbanks, AK 99775Phone: 907-474-7525Email: [email protected]

Dr. John P. Middaugh, State EpidemiologistAlaska Department of Health & Social ServicesDivision of Public HealthSection of EpidemiologyPO Box 240249Anchorage, Alaska 99524-0249Phone: 907-269-8054Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/07.27.01mercury.html




http://www.sfos.uaf.edu./directory/faculty/jewett/




Radio Script2001

Summer's clock: Fireweed, likethis one growing along the edgeof writer Andy Hall's driveway,marks the passage of Alaska'ssummer. Photo by Andy Hall.

Fireweed__________________

INTRO: Summer is, for many Alaskans, the busiest season. Thenearly perpetual sunlight allows Alaskans to go fishing, hiking,boating—or even catch up on long-undone chores. Still, summer neverseems to last long enough. Marking summer's passage is one ofAlaska's most ubiquitous flowers, the fireweed. This week on ArcticScience Journeys Radio, writer Andy Hall comments on the fireweed'srole in setting the pace of the season.

STORY: ANDY HALL: "Summer in Alaska is the time when themidnight sun convinces me I can spend an entirely unreasonableamount of time out of bed, usually outside. The season's approachbrings feelings of excitement and wariness: excitement for the


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activities that come with the warm weather and wariness because I feelas if I'm steeling for an endurance test.

I'm talking 18 hours of daylight and a dusk that never completelydarkens. It is a breathless time: three months, more or less, when thesun must be cached against the dark winter days ahead. It's common tosit down to dinner at 10 p.m. or stay up all night fishing, biking, hikingor just talking with friends when most people are sound asleep.

There is, however, one element of summer I could do without, and it'snot the bears, the bugs or the highway-choking RVs.

It's the fireweed.

The tall, reedy stalks waving their magenta petals in the breeze arecommon throughout much of the state. I can't think of a flower that ismore synonymous with Alaska, except, maybe, the forget-me-not.Fireweed is beautiful. In momentary lapses I've even admired the wayit tints a field or far hillside in gauzy crimson. Then I remember theflower's insidious little secret and look away.

The thing is, each fireweed is a living, blooming chronometer ofsummer, brilliantly marking the season's progress. Sometime thismonth, when the plant reaches a height of a foot or two, the firstblossoms will emerge several inches below the tip. As summerprogresses, the petals will climb continuously higher. When they reachthe tip, summer is all but over.

For me it's like when the villain in a B movie inverts the hourglass andchallenges the hero to complete his task before the sands run out. OK,that's a bit of a stretch, but I can't help but think that way. Worse, apatch of fireweed lines my driveway and, every night, whether I amreturning from work or a family outing, I gauge the distance betweenthe highest bloom and the top of the plant. It often prompts a momentof reflection: Have I made good use of the day? Can I complete thatlong to-do list before summer's end?

More than once I've glanced at the shrinking gap between bloom andtip and skipped watching TV in favor of a hike up the valley withMelissa. Or I've forgone dinner and thrown the float tube into the truckto spend the evening casting for trout in a glassy lake.

The fireweed is a compelling signal to get out and do something,because when bloom reaches tip and the plant goes cottony with seed,I know the wind that will spread next year's crop of fireweed will soonbear winter's first flakes of snow.

Come to think of it, maybe fireweed isn't so bad after all.

I'm Andy Hall."



OUTRO: When not eyeballing the fireweed or hiking with his wife,Melissa, Andy fritters his summer away as the executive editor ofAlaska magazine.

This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of the Alaska SeaGrant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.



Andy Hall, Executive EditorAlaska Magazine619 East Ship Creek Ave., Suite 329Anchorage, Alaska 99501Phone: 907-272-6070Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/07.13.01fireweed.html





Radio Script2001

__________________

Whale Count__________________

INTRO: Each spring, bowhead whales return to the Arctic Ocean aftera year feeding in the Bering Sea that separates Alaska and Russia.Awaiting them in Alaska are both hunters and scientists. As DougSchneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,bowhead numbers are at their highest level in nearly a decade.

STORY: The annual hunt for bowhead whales is finally over in theInupiat Eskimo village of Barrow, on Alaska's north coast. Nativehunters harvested 20 bowheads that were each processed and dividedamong village residents. North Slope Borough whale biologist CraigGeorge says this year's hunt was a good one, despite the broken icethat choked open leads and fog that made for poor visibility.

GEORGE: "It was a pretty typical year. In fact we had a lot of heavymultiyear ice which was driven in by strong southwest wind events.We had a pretty good season. I think 20 whales were landed. There aremore whales that are struck and lost so the total mortality to the herd ishigher."

While hunters were busy looking for whales to harvest, scientistsstayed busy conducting the first comprehensive census of the bowheadpopulation since 1993.

GEORGE: "We got a good count. We saw 3,300 bowheads, so theestimate will probably be reasonably high. But watch conditions werepretty bad. It was amazing we saw as many whales as we did given theconditions."

Once biologists account for the poor visibility and ice that probablyshielded some whales from view, George says the number of whalescould easily be higher than the 1993 census.

GEORGE: "Yes, it could very well go up. We saw a lot of calves and Ithink (their population) is doing pretty well."

Each spring, bowhead whales migrate north through the Arctic Oceanand into the Canadian Beaufort Sea, where they spend the summer


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Guide to Marine Mammalsof Alaska

International WhalingCommission

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feeding on zooplankton. Despite hunting by Alaska and CanadianNatives, bowhead numbers are considered healthy. Each year, AlaskaNatives from several villages together harvest about 40 whales, whichcan grow to 60 feet and weigh up to 75 tons. The InternationalWhaling Commission sets limits on the number of strikes allowed andthe number of whales landed by each village.

GEORGE: "It's a conservative scheme. This is a slow-reproducingmammal. They can only take as many as they can show a need for. Itdoesn't matter if there are a million bowheads, they still need to show aneed."

Another hunt is planned this fall, when the bowhead whales areexpected to pass offshore again as they migrate south into the BeringSea.




John Craighead George, Wildlife BiologistNorth Slope BoroughDepartment of Wildlife ManagementBarrow, AlaskaPhone: 907-852-0350Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/07.13.01whale-count.html

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Radio Script2001

Fruits of the hunt. Morels are a favorite fungi of mushroomhunters in Alaska. Photo by Sonya Senkowsky,AlaskaWriter.com.

Morel Hunting__________________

INTRO: Almost anyone who loves mushrooms has probablywondered what it would be like to pick them in the wild. The best wayto start is to go with people who know what they're doing. As sciencewriter Sonya Senkowsky reports in this week's Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio, Alaska mushroom hunters have begun harvestingmorels, a type of mushroom that grows especially well in burnedforests.

STORY: Two years ago, Eklutna, Alaska, landowner Larry Traw hada series of nasty surprises. First, a wildfire burned some 400 acres offorest around his home. Then, state and federal officials tried to holdhim responsible for the blaze, saying it most likely started when he


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Identifying Morels andFalse Morels

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http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfmfk1/mycology/morels.htm

http://www.bright.net/~wildwood/index.html

http://www.morelmushroomhunting.com/

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http://grantcounty.org/ci/muscoda/recipes-index.html

was burning brush in his backyard. Finally, he was slapped with aone-million-dollar fire-fighting bill, the largest ever charged to aprivate landowner.

Could there possibly be a bright side to this story? Traw says therewas. For at the same time his legal battle was beginning, popping upamong the ash was another surprise, this one much nicer: a fresh cropof Alaska morels.

TRAW: "In Missouri (where Bob and I are from), we went all thetime. I didn't know they had morels up here in Alaska."

The government has since backed down on trying to blame Traw forthe fire. But the morels, which can fruit for several years following ablaze, have stuck around�and Traw has been enjoying them.

TRAW: "I love the smell of 'em. Boy, they just smell so good, and Ilove to eat 'em in butter."

Morels, choice mushrooms about the size, shape and color ofpinecones, can be hard to find even when you know where to look forthem. Traw only learned he might have a crop when the GreaterAnchorage Mycological Association�a group of localmushroom-fanciers�asked permission to hunt for them on his property.For Rachel Savannah, it was her first foray into the world of morelhunting.

SAVANNAH: "I haven't found any on my own yet. Someone elsefound one and pointed it out to me, but I haven't found any yet. I'mhaving a hard time spotting them."

Spotting the elusive mushrooms is just one of the reasons first-timersare wise to go with people more experienced. Those who have no ideawhat they're looking for could easily confuse other�potentiallypoisonous�mushrooms for morels. A mistake can be deadly. Othermushrooms that fruit at the same time include the Gyromitraesculenta, also known as the "brain mushroom" because of itsconvoluted appearance. It used to be considered quite edible, eventasty�but has since been found to harbor a toxin that can kill.

Morel hunters are generally thought of as private types, people whowould never give away their mushrooming secrets. But the membersof the Anchorage mushroom club are eager to share their knowledge�and, on forays like this, their mushrooms as well.



For many Alaskans, collecting morels is a favoritesummer pursuit. Here, a group looks for morels within arecently burned forest. Photo by Chris Floyd, AlaskaWriter.com. "You guys, c'mon over here in this wet area. Let somebody who hasn'tfound one find it. Who hasn't found one at all? Come over here. It'swonderful over here. We're like in a feeding frenzy. It's wet and wild."

Paulette Knutson observed that some spots turned up more mushroomsthan others.

KNUTSON: "I look on the base of the trees in the burned area wheremany times you will have the water pooling after a rain like runoff."

Edible mushrooms like morels may be what bring most new clubmembers into the fold, but the most hardcore members of the groupsay there's much more to mushrooms than whether they can be eaten.Fungi serve crucial roles in forests. They help bring nutrients to theroot systems of trees. They decompose dead material. And they're justplain fascinating. That's why, when the group comes upon anotherfungus, organizer Diane Pleninger doesn't miss the opportunity toteach.

PLENINGER: "What this is, it's called the false timberconch. We justhad a session on these. It's geotropic. They will turn. When they're on atree that falls over, they will turn so their spore-bearing surface isdownwards. And that's what this one has done."

Alaska's morel season lasts only four to six weeks. But even after themorels are gone, that's no reason to miss out. Alaska is home tothousands of varieties of mushrooms�including at least half a dozenedibles that beginners can safely learn to collect. And summer has justbegun.

OUTRO: This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of the



Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mSonya Senkowsky.



Chris Maack, ChairpersonGreater Anchorage Mycological AssociationP.O. Box 190596Anchorage, Alaska 99519-0596Phone: 907-278-4265

Sonya Senkowsky, Science WriterAlaskaWriterP.O. Box 140030Anchorage, Alaska 99514Phone: 907-830-7355Email: [email protected]: http://www.alaskawriter.com



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/06.29.01morels.html






Radio Script2001

__________________

Climate Confusion__________________

INTRO: While many scientists link the causes of climate change tohumans burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, other scientists saythere’s not enough evidence to blame people. As Doug Schneiderreports in this week’s Arctic Science Journeys Radio, one scientistsays the climate may be responding more to natural cycles and that theclimate may actually have begun to cool.

STORY: Jan Curtis doesn't consider himself a pariah among his peersin the scientific community. Rather, he thinks of himself as a healthyskeptic when it comes to blaming people for a warmer global climate.

CURTIS: "There just isn't enough information available to come toany kind of conclusion."

Curtis is a climatologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He seeshis role in the debate not as one who researches climate but as one whotests the results and questions the conclusions of others.

CURTIS: "Our perspective is to take the available data, applystatistical methodology to it and to determine what is good and badabout the data, and then come up with conclusions that we can feelpretty confident about."

Curtis agrees with his colleagues that the world's climate has gottenwarmer during the last century. But it's the causes of this warming hefinds elusive. He says the computer models scientists use to predict theability of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to warm the climate areflawed.

CURTIS: "The general circulation model is a theoretical basis modelthat takes into account various weather elements. The problem with themodel is that the spatial resolution of the data is too coarse. Theseparation between data points is far wider than in any of theforecasting models that look at weather on a daily or weekly basis. Sowe're missing a lot of data. The models make the earth very simplifiedwhere you have land and water and they don't take into account the


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Wall Street Journal: Thepress gets it wrong

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Still Waiting forGreenhouse: A LukewarmView of Global Warming

United NationsIntergovernmental Panelon Climate Change

Alaska Climate ResearchCenter

Global Warming: EarlyWarning Signs

Center for Global Changeand Arctic SystemResearch

International ArcticResearch Center

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Climate Confusion

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http://www4.nationalacademies.org/onpi/webextra.nsf/web/climate?OpenDocument


http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95000606

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=95000606

http://www.john-daly.com/singer2.htm



http://www.john-daly.com/



http://www.ipcc.ch/

http://www.ipcc.ch/

http://www.ipcc.ch/

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu./


http://www.climatehotmap.org/


http://www.cgc.uaf.edu/



http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/


topography of mountain ranges."

Curtis says water vapor is the wild card in climate change models.

CUTRIS: "Water vapor is far more important because just aone-percent change in water vapor can have the same effect asdoubling the amount of carbon dioxide. So, if we are warming, whichwe are, in all likelihood that will increase the amount of evaporationoff oceans and lakes, and therefore you get more clouds in the sky.And clouds work both ways. They can either reflect sunlight back intospace or trap the heat near the earth's surface."

Beyond the fallibility of the computer models, Curtis says scientistshave largely ignored the many natural cycles that drive the world'sclimate.

CURTIS: "We know that in the past that there have been temperaturesconsiderably warmer than they are now, and considerably colder. Sothere's obviously a natural signature that may be much more of aninfluence than human impacts on climate. The last real warm winterwe had that was record-setting was 70 or 80 years ago. We certainlydidn't have the same issues with carbon dioxide and the like then."

In fact—and this is sure to raise some eyebrows—Curtis says there'ssome evidence to suggest that the climate, rather than getting warmer,may actually be cooling.

CUTRIS: "In 1976, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, there was ashift in the weather patterns such that the temperatures for the next 20years were increasing. However, in the last two or three years, despitethe warm winter we had here last year, temperatures have actuallybeen decreasing. Whether or not that's because of more cloudiness inthe summer and less cloudiness in the winter or a half dozen otherpossibilities, climate and weather are always changing."




Jan Curtis, climatologistAlaska Climate Research CenterUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks 99775-7320Phone: 907-474-7885Email: [email protected]

Arctic Science Journeys is a radio service highlighting science,

Greenpeace ClimateCampaign




http://www.greenpeace.org/


culture, and the environment of the circumpolar north. Produced bythe Alaska Sea Grant College Program and the University of AlaskaFairbanks.


The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/06.15.01climate-confusiont.html




Radio Script2001

__________________

Alaska Feels the Heat__________________

INTRO: Scientists for years have predicted that as the Arctic climatewarms, sea ice, glaciers and permafrost will melt, sea levels will rise,and the tree line will move north. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, their predictions are comingtrue, and the changes they'll bring will have a profound effect onAlaska's people and environment.

STORY: This past winter, Kotzebue Sound, a narrow span of ocean innorthwest Alaska, remained ice-free through much of the winter. CalebPungowiyi, a native elder and hunter from the nearby village ofKotzebue, thinks that had something to do with the lack of ringed sealpups in the sound this spring.

PUNGOWIYI: "It definitely has impacted their reproduction. Becauseit froze up so late, it didn't have pressure ridges that females use forreproduction. When there's ice ridges, then those ice ridges get coveredby snow and then they den under the snow. This year, we didn't seethat happening."

Storms seem to be more frequent in the region, too, says EstherIyatunguk, who lives in the coastal village of Shishmaref. The stormswhip up ocean waves that rapidly erode the beach in front of herhouse. The walk from Iyatunguk's house to the beach is now severalhundred feet shorter.

IYATUNGUK: "The ocean is eating up our land. There's a lot that hasbeen lost the last couple of years."

Scientists say such events are the inescapable result of an Arcticclimate that has warmed almost five degrees, on average, during thelast half-century. Gunter Weller is a climate-change scientist at theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. He says the warming trend has meltedabout one million square miles, or roughly ten percent, of the Arctic'ssea ice.

WELLER: "As you have less sea ice, you have more open water and alarger fetch area for storm surges. The storm surges, particularly in


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Related Web sites

A Closer Look at GlobalWarming, NationalResearch Council Reporton Climate Change

Alaska Climate Center

Alaska Climate ResearchCenter

Inuit Observations onClimate Change

Global Warming: EarlyWarning Signs



United NationsIntergovernmental Panelon Climate Change

Greenpeace ClimateCampaign

North Pacific MarineResearch Program

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Alaska Feels the Heat

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http://www.ipcc.ch/

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http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/tk/109/abstract109.html


areas underlain by permafrost, have become a real big problem alongthe Alaska coast."

Weller says proof of a warmer Arctic is all around us. Alaska wintersare now shorter and milder, and summers are hotter and wetter.Insects, like the harmful spruce bark beetle, are moving north, even astrees and shrubs themselves move north onto the once-barren Arctictundra. In the Interior, Weller says melting permafrost is slowlyhelping to create an entirely new ecosystem.

WELLER: "And they project that slowly there is a transformation froma boreal forest system into a wetland. And when the wetlandeventually dries out, it turns into grassland. So we're talking over longterm, maybe hundreds of years, about a slow transformation of oneecosystem into another."

Climate warming is affecting the state's infrastructure as well. OrsonSmith is a professor of engineering at the University of AlaskaAnchorage. He says sea walls are being pummeled by storm surgesand rising sea levels. Melting permafrost is collapsing roads,undercutting bridges and throwing houses off kilter. He believesAlaska's building practices need to be changed.

SMITH: "The manuals of practice need to be changed, even some ofthe building codes need to be changed to make sure engineers take intoaccount the real prospect of sea level change and climate change."

But it's Alaska Natives who will feel the heat of climate change themost. Caleb Pungowiyi worries that as sea ice becomes thinner andless extensive, it will be harder and more dangerous for hunters to findseals, walrus and other animals.

PUNGOWIYI: "There's plenty of animals out there now. The problemis accessibility. If the ice is further away, we have to go further. Ouraccess to them, our ability to harvest them, and our success rate isbeing affected. There is a potential for hardship. If the sea icecontinues to retreat further and further north, villages that used todepend on marine mammals will see their lives turned around andthey'll have to rely on something else."

But climate change isn't all bad for Alaska. An Arctic Ocean free of icewould make trans-polar shipping possible. Agriculture and loggingwould fare better, too. Commercial fishing could either improve ordecline, depending on which species did well. Gunter Weller saysAlaskans will have to adapt, and that they should begin planning nowfor change.

WELLER: "Shouldn't we begin to think about it? I don't see too muchwillingness, at least in the political system, to even think about this. It's

(NPMR): Climate changestudy





what disturbs me most."

Back in Shishmaref, residents are taking such advice seriously. They'remaking plans to move the village inland to higher ground.




Caleb Pungowiyi, PresidentRobert Aqqaluk Newlin Sr. Memorial TrustBox 506Kotzebue, Alaska 99572Phone: 907-442-1611Email: [email protected]

Gunter Weller, DirectorCooperative Institute for Arctic Research301 International Arctic Research CenterUniversity of Alaska FairbanksFairbanks, Alaska 99775-7740Phone: 907-474-7371Email: [email protected]

Orson Smith, Associate ProfessorSchool of EngineeringUniversity of Alaska Anchorage3211 Providence Dr.Anchorage, Alaska 99508Phone: 907-786-1910Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/06.08.01Alaska-heat.html







Radio Script2001

Before (above) and after

Alaska Getting Shrubbier__________________

INTRO: Scientists for years have used sophisticated satellite imagesto see how climate warming is changing the Arctic landscape. But asDoug Schneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,scientists say aerial photographs taken of Alaska's North Slope duringthe 1940s offer some of the best evidence of such changes�a dramaticincrease in the growth of trees and shrubs in the Arctic.

STORY: The photographs nearly ended up in the landfill�some 3,000images of Alaska's North Slope, taken by scientists in the 1940s whowere looking for signs of oil beneath the tundra. Kenneth Tape is aresearch technician at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

TAPE: "These photographs were taken out of the side door of anairplane flying low to the ground, so you can imagine what they looklike. They're not typical aerial photographs from above. Rather you'relooking at the landscape from about 400 yards off the ground."

By chance, Mathew Sturm, a scientist with the U.S. Army's ColdRegions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Fairbanks, Alaska,heard about the photographs while doing a study on shrub growth inthe Arctic.

STURM: "Somewhere along the way someone mentioned these


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Photos:

Before and after photos

Related Web sites

Nature science journal

U.S. Army Cold RegionsResearch and EngineeringLaboratory,FortWainwright, Alaska

Shrub census showsAlaskan Arctic losing itscool (CNN)

Alaska Shows Signs ofWarming (ABC)

How Does ClimateChange InfluenceAlaska's Vegetation?Insights from the FossilRecord (USGS)

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Alaska Getting Shrubbier

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http://www.nature.com/nature/

http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/alaska-office/



http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/05/30/alaska.shrub/index.html



http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/warming_arctic010531.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/warming_arctic010531.html

http://geology.cr.usgs.gov/pub/fact-sheets/fs-0071-97/





mythical photos. We heard about them but couldn't seem to find them.Eventually, I located a guy in Anchorage, at the United StatesGeological Survey. He was going to get rid of them. I wasn't sure ifthey were what we were looking for. I said send me two or three, andwhen they came,they were a bonanza. They were magnificent."

Soon, Sturm's contact at the United States Geological Survey wassending him boxes full of high-resolution photographs of the Arctictundra's grasses, tussocks and shrubs. Each photograph is 18 inchesacross by nine inches high.

STURM: "They photographed virtually every creek and drainage youcan imagine from the Canning River west to practically the west coast,generally within 100 miles of the Arctic coast. They photographed avast stretch of territory, several hundred miles wide and more than acouple of hundred miles north to south."

Scientists re-photographed areas of Arctic tundra spanninghundreds of miles along Alaska's North Slope. (Graphic here andphoto above are courtesy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ColdRegions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Fort Wainwright,Alaska.)

Tape, Sturm and colleague Charles Racine poured over thephotographs and selected 66 of the most visible images. After theyfigured out exactly where the photographs were taken, Kenneth Tapesays they set out to take new photographs of the sites.

TAPE: "It's a pretty painstaking process, because you're up there in ahelicopter with a GPS. You give the GPS coordinates to the pilot, butthe helicopter is drifting around and you're trying to get just the rightangle."

But it was apparently worth the effort because what they found is someof the best evidence of climate change yet discovered in Alaska.Mathew Sturm says the photos reveal a dramatic increase in the extentof dwarf birch, alder, and willow shrubs on the Arctic tundra. Theirfindings appear in this week's issue of the international science journal,



Nature.

STURM: "What we're seeing is that individual shrubs are gettingbigger, patches of shrubs that existed 50 years ago are now denser,thicker, and with more shrubs. And areas where there weren't shrubs50 years ago now have new shrubs that have colonized and taken over.The exciting part is that we're seeing this over a wide area, severalhundred miles in extent. It's rare we have a chance to get ameasurement that has that kind of geographic distribution to it."

Sturm says evidence of moderate to significant shrub growth showedup in more than half of the sites they visited. At the remaining sites,they noted no decrease in shrub abundance or density. He says thecause is most likely a warming of the Arctic's climate.

STURM: "This is completely consistent with the models we have sincewe know that Arctic Alaska has been warming. This is the response wewould have expected."

Sturm says it's easy to see the changes when a photo from the 1940s isplaced next to a photo of the same location today.

STURM: "It's easily grasped by anybody. These are before and afterphotos from areas that are not impacted by man. It's a pristine area, andyou can see large and dramatic changes. I think most people looking atthat say it really is changing. That's the beauty of it. It's a cleanexample that goes into the pile of evidence that things are changingapparently in response to climate warming."

Not surprisingly, the researchers are pleased their work has garneredinternational attention. But Sturm says they can't take all the credit.

STURM: "In some ways the real winners were the guys who tookthose photos 50 years ago. Without those, we wouldn't have gottenanywhere."

Sturm says the last time Alaska experienced a rapid growth in shrubswas about 8,000 years ago. He says the next step in their research is todetermine the exact role played by climate warming in the changingArctic landscape.




Mathew Sturm, GeophysicistU.S. Army Corps of Engineers



Cold Regions Research LaboratoryFort Wainwright, AlaskaPhone: 907-353-5149Email: [email protected]

Kenneth Tape, Research TechnicianGeophysical InstituteUniversity of Alaska FairbanksPhone: 907-353-5149Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/06.01.01shrubs.html






Radio Script2001

__________________

Insuring Alaska's Salmon Crop__________________

INTRO: When an American wheat farmer loses his crop to a flood ordrought, insurance he purchased from the federal government helpscushion the blow. As Doug Schneider reports in this week's ArcticScience Journeys Radio, Alaska's beleaguered salmon fishermen maysoon be able to insure their "crop" against disaster as well.

STORY: Alaska is famous for salmon runs that set records one year,only to plummet the next. It's a natural boom-and-bust cycle aboutwhich fishermen have long complained, but until now couldn't reallydo anything about. That may soon change, as the U.S. Department ofAgriculture�the same agency that helps farmers insure their cropsagainst locusts, droughts, floods, and other disasters�looks to offerinsurance to salmon fishermen in Alaska's Bristol Bay. MarkHerrmann is a fisheries economist at the University of AlaskaFairbanks.

HERRMANN: "This has never before been applied to a wild fishery. Ifthis were applied to Bristol Bay, it'd be the very first time."

Herrmann and other university economists are conducting a feasibilitystudy of the pilot insurance program. They'll hold a series of meetingswith fishermen to explain the program and gather feedback from theseafood industry.

HERRMANN: "The purpose of this is to protect against unforeseenrun failures. It's to protect fishermen so they have at least someguaranteed income each year, and to more stabilize their income sothey can make investment decisions."

Herrmann says commercial fishing is too risky for insurancecompanies to offer protection by themselves. He says the federalgovernment would have to subsidize both the premiums paid byfishermen and the overall costs borne by the insurance companies.

Under the pilot program, fishermen could choose from severalcoverage options that have different premiums. Under one optionbeing considered, all fishermen would receive basic coverage at a


Download RealAudio

Related Web sites

U.S. Department ofAgriculture, RiskManagement Agency

News release on cropinsurance bill

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Insuring Alaska's Salmon Crop

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http://www.rma.usda.gov/



http://www.senate.gov/~stevens/pr052500.htm

http://www.senate.gov/~stevens/pr052500.htm

nominal fee in the event of a complete run failure.

HERRMANN: "The catastrophic insurance is called the 50-55 plan. Itwill cover you once your run falls below 50 percent of what would beconsidered a normal run. Say if the entire bay or different districtscome in at less than 50 percent. The damages would be figured onanything less than 50 percent of a normal run. And you would becovered at 55 cents on the dollar of what would be considered anormal price. So, if nothing came in, you'd be guaranteed about 27.5percent of your normal income."

John Fiorillo, vice president of Online Media for WorldCatch Inc.,suppliers of seafood and a leading industry Internet informationservice, likes the idea of helping fishermen, but says there are lots ofunanswered questions.

FIORILLO: "It's just such a fresh program, the paint is still wet. It'stough to know what the program is going to look like."

He says one of the biggest hurdles the USDA faces is defining exactlywhat constitutes a normal salmon run.

FIORILLO: "My question is, so eventually will every wild-harvestedspecies in the U.S. potentially carry this insurance? I would think you'dhave failures every year in abundance all around the country, becausefisheries are cyclical. Just because the crab fishery now is in what wewould call the valley, I don't think it's a failure. It's a cycle. Some ofthe valleys are real dark, and deep, and scary. And some of the peaksare real high, and great, and mighty. So I get a little worried aboutredefining cyclical fisheries as failures or successes.

Fiorillo also wonders whether crop insurance might actually hurtfishermen, by forcing those who can't afford the premiums to stopfishing.

FIORILLO: "If this does become an insured crop, so to speak, is thereany impact on a how a fisherman finances his operations? For afishermen who doesn't buy the insurance, for example, is he limitedthen in his financing options for his operations? Does it become defacto mandatory at some point?"

Last year, Congress mandated the USDA offer Bristol Bay salmonfishermen crop insurance in time for the 2002 season. Meetings toexplain the program to fishermen in the Bristol Bay communities ofNaknek and King Salmon are planned for mid-June.






John Fiorillo, Vice President, Online MediaWorldCatch.com2100 N. Pacific St., Suite 200Seattle, WA 98103Phone: 206-973-1213Email: [email protected]

Mark Herrmann, ProfessorEconomics DepartmentUniversity of Alaska FairbanksPhone: 907-474-7116Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/05.25.01salmon-insurance.html






Radio Script2001

Crested Auklets__________________

INTRO: Finding a suitable mate is a challenge for just about everyspecies. If you're a seabird like the crested auklet, finding a partnermay be as simple as being good at keeping parasites off your body.Doug Schneider has more, in this week's Arctic Science JourneysRadio.

STORY: Alaska's Aleutian Islands stand like lush, green sentinelsoverlooking the Bering Sea. Their massive cliffs are an oasis amid avast, lonely ocean, and are home to a variety of seabirds. The mostrecognizable is probably the tufted puffin. These islands also are hometo colonies of shearwaters, kittiwakes, and crested auklets. At seveninches in length, crested auklets aren't big. But what they lack in size,they more than make up for in number. Hector Douglas is a graduatestudent who studies crested auklets at the University of AlaskaFairbanks.

DOUGLAS: "Years ago, when I first started working in the Aleutians,I went out to a colony of auklets on Kiska Island, which is toward thewestern end of the Aleutians. One of the largest seabird coloniesknown to science occurs there. Well, it was quite an amazingintroduction to the Aleutians, to be in the midst of this colonycomprised of approximately 2 1/2 million auklets. To be sitting there


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Naturwissenschaften(Nature Germany)

Crested Auklet (U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service)

Crested auklet researchabstract

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Crested Auklets

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http://link.springer.de/journals/nawi/

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http://www.mbr.nbs.gov/id/framlst/i0180id.html

http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00114/contents/01/00236/

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early in the morning and to watch the fog lift off the water and see thismass of auklets rise up off the water in a long, black sinuous cloud wasreally amazing. They are very peculiar-looking birds. They have acrested set of feathers that extends from the forehead and droops in along arch. And they have this bright orange bill and this conspicuouswhite facial plume."

While at the seabird colonies, Douglas noticed a pungent citrus smellin the air. The odor emanated from the birds themselves, but no oneknows for sure its purpose. Recently, Douglas isolated a series ofchemicals, called aldehydes, that work together to emit the fruity odor.The findings are to be published in the June issue of the Germanscientific journal Naturwissenschaften. The publication is similar tothe U.S. journal Nature.

DOUGLAS "What we think we see is a rare example of a birdadapting a chemical defense. Our hypothesis is that it provides arepellent function against parasites."

Given that auklets live in massive colonies cramped onto steep, narrowledges, such defenses would be a practical solution to the pitfalls ofcolonial living.

DOUGLAS: "They nest in very large colonies, thousands to hundredsof thousands. When you have such large colonies, you have theopportunity for a parasite population to actually become establishedand have an effect on the size of the colony in terms of limiting groupsize."

Yet Douglas suggests these chemical defenses play another, equallyimportant role�that of helping auklets select a worthy mate. He saysauklets are first attracted to a prospective mate's crested head plumage,but discriminating auklets don't commit to a lasting relationship untilthey check out their partner's odor.

DOUGLAS: "There is a part of the courtship ritual that appears topromote odor assessment. The prospective mates will actually rub theirbills in the nape feathers of their mate. We suspect the birds willadvertise their parasite resistance, and that the prospective mate canthen determine, in a sort of honest way, just how resistant the matewould be."

Douglas hopes to conduct research to discover exactly what role odorplays in the crested auklet's ability to both combat parasites and attracta mate.






Hector DouglasUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean ScienceFairbanks, Alaska 99777-7220Phone: 907-474-5815Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/05.18.01auklets.html





Radio Script2001

What Walrus Eat__________________

This page contains a supplemental video clip inQuickTime format. Click on the image below toplay the QuickTime video segment, or follow thelink to play a larger-format QuickTime movie.

INTRO: Scientists learn a lot about animals, birds and fish by peeringinto their stomachs to see what they eat. A new study on how walrusdigest their food has scientists rethinking this marine mammal's impacton the ocean food chain. Doug Schneider has more in this week'sArctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: Biologists have long known that walrus comb the bottom ofthe sea, rooting out clams, snails, worms and other creatures from theseabed. But when they've had occasion to examine the inside of awalrus stomach—such as after they've been harvested by Nativehunters—what they usually find are just the leftover, hard-to-digestpieces of clams. That's led scientists to presume that walrus ate farmore clams than anything else.

Gay Sheffield is a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish andGame.

SHEFFIELD: "With all these invertebrates, you have no bones. And so


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Related Web sites

Abstract in MarineMammology

Guide to Marine Mammalsof Alaska

ADF&G Wildlife NotebookSeries

Arctic Science Journeys: What Walrus Eat

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http://apt.allenpress.com/aptonline/?request=get-abstract&issn=0824-0469&volume=017&issue=02&page=0310

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http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/notebook/notehome.htm


you're trying to go back and look at the diet, at a variety of prey, noneof which have hard parts. So basically you'd just find large clam feetand siphons."

The task of learning what and how much walrus eat fell to Sheffield,who until recently was a graduate student at the University of AlaskaFairbanks. Sheffield constructed an artificial walrus stomach in herlab, using a container that mimicked the acidity and temperature of awalrus digestive tract. Her results were published in the April issue ofthe Journal of the Society for Marine Mammology.

SHEFFIELD: "What I did was take a variety of invertebrateprey—echiurid worms, sipunculid worms, clams and snails with theirshells removed—and I wanted to see which of these invertebrate preywould digest the quickest. I wanted to see how they came apart giventhe temperature and the acidity of a walrus stomach. And we foundthat they came apart differently. Some disappeared rather quickly, likesipunculid worms and the viscera and mantle of clams. The clam footand siphon would stay behind."

Since small invertebrates passed through the digestive system quickly,and other prey, like clams, remained, it's not surprising that scientiststended to overestimate clams in the walrus diet. Dr. Brendan Kelly is amarine mammal scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

KELLY: "While she hasn't completely changed the depiction of what'sin the diet, it certainly shows us that we've tended to overestimatesome of the things that digest more slowly, like some of the clams.You end up with kind of a skewed picture of what's in the diet. So shewas able to come up with some guidelines for how soon after feedingyou would need to sample in order to really have a complete picture ofwhat that individual walrus ate."

Walruses hang out on Round Island Walrus Sanctuary, Bristol Bay, Alaska.This file is large (5.8 MB) and may take a while to download, especially on aslow connection. If you have a fast connection, check out the larger format(16 MB) version of walrus on Round Island.

0:53 sec; 5.8 MB


Sheffield's findings have caused the scientific community to go overdata as far back as 1952, to recalculate the types and amount of preywalrus consume. They still eat lots of clams, but they eat lots of otherthings as well.

SHEFFIELD: "Turns out that walrus are eating a lot more things, a lotmore frequently, than clams. They eat everything from tiny



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/movies/Walrus-large.mov


amphipods, jellyfish, clams, all the way up to birds and seals."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates 300,000 walrus inhabitthe Bering Sea. Knowing more about what walrus eat will helpresearchers better gauge the health of both walrus and the prey theydepend on.




Gay Sheffield, Marine Mammal BiologistAlaska Department of Fish and GameFairbanks, Alaska 99710Phone: 907-459-7248Email: [email protected]

Dr. Brendan Kelly, Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean ScienceFisheries DivisionJuneau, Alaska 99801Phone: 907-465-6510Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/05.04.01walrus-diets.html






Radio Script2001

NMFS biologist Dr. Jeff Napp (left) and Dr.Mikhail Flint from Russia's Shirshov Instituteexamine water collected from the Bering Sea.This sample will be analyzed for the presenceof a new, and potentially troublesome,phytoplankton species. Photo by DougSchneider/Alaska Sea Grant.

Plankton Bloom__________________

INTRO: In 1997, at the height of an El Niño summer, a massiveplankton bloom turned the sea off Alaska the color of milk, and killedhundreds of thousands of seabirds. Now, scientists say that bloom mayhave triggered profound changes in the ocean food web. DougSchneider has more, in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: Looking out from the wheelhouse of the research vesselAlpha Helix, things on Alaska's Bering Sea appear normal. Dall'sporpoises dart across the front of the ship, while gray whales breach inthe distance. As puffins�their bellies bulging with food�take flight fromthe ship's path, Dr. Terry Whitledge recalls the conditions that led tothe massive plankton bloom seen here three years ago.


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Related Web sites

North Pacific MarineResearch Program(NPMR): Plankton study

Fisheries OceanographyCoordinatedInvestigations (FOCI)

University of WashingtonSchool of Oceanography

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Plankton Bloom

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http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/npmr/projects/biological/52/feature52.html



http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/



http://oceanweb.ocean.washington.edu/ocean_web/

http://oceanweb.ocean.washington.edu/ocean_web/

WHITLEDGE: "One of the interesting and surprising things thathappened in 1997 was the appearance of a large coccolithophoridbloom. If it hadn't discolored the water, we might not have discoveredit was here until some time later. It happened during an unusual year. Itwas very calm and sunny, not many clouds, and the water temperaturewas higher than normal. So it looks like some of these conditionshelped establish this coccolith bloom in the Bering Sea. Once you havea small, unusual organism like that, the next question you need toanswer is, well, what is this doing to the rest of the ecosystem?"

Coccolithophors have another, equally difficult to pronounce name�Emiliania huxleyi. Simply put, it's a type of phytoplankton, like algae.For three weeks, Whitledge, a University of Alaska Fairbanksresearcher, along with scientists from the University of Washington,the National Marine Fisheries Service, and even Russia's ShirshovInstitute, will conduct studies aimed at finding out how E. huxleyi mayhave changed the Bering Sea. The project is funded by the NorthPacific Marine Research Program, established by Congress to pinpointthe causes of Bering Sea changes and species declines.

WHITLEDGE: "The information we're gathering will be assimilatedinto the rest of our understanding of the Bering Sea. We'll be able tosay a lot more about whether these changes are very critical for thefuture of fishing and populations of animals here."

Dr. Evelyn Lessard is a marine ecologist from the University ofWashington. She's interested to know whether this new plankton willdisrupt the Bering Sea's vital, yet delicately balanced, plankton foodweb.

LESSARD: "We are doing a comparative study to hopefully capture anEmiliania huxleyi environment, versus what we consider to be a morenormal summertime plankton community in the Bering Sea. Bycomparing the growth and grazing of the small algae in these twodifferent areas, we should be able to tell if Emiliania huxleyi is apositive, negative or neutral organism in this system."

Scientists also want to know if key phytoplankton consumers, calledzooplankton, will eat E. Huxleyi. Whitledge says their tough calciumshells may be hard for zooplankton to digest.

WHITLEDGE: "They have little platelets of calcium carbonate, six ofthem, on their body. They're a bit like little pieces of armor, and so theorganisms that crush these in their feeding appendages may have amore difficult time."

If zooplankton can't eat E. huxleyi, the consequences for the food chaincould be severe. Zooplankton densities and diversity could take atumble. Fish and seabirds that eat zooplankton would also be affected.



Dr. Jeffrey Knapp is a fisheries biologist with the National MarineFisheries Service.

KNAPP: "You've got to eat something, and that's where the food chainstarts. That's their grocery store. That's one of the reasons for going outthis year�is to look at the impact of the coccolithophor bloom. We wantto see if it has inserted another step into the food web. Each time youinsert another group of organisms eating, the yield to the fish can bedecreased. So adding another step could mean a dramatic decrease inthe amounts of food or energy ultimately available."

Collecting the data will mean round-the-clock experiments overhundreds of miles of open ocean. It's a project that's expected to taketwo years to complete.




Dr. Terry Whitledge, ProfessorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksInstitute of Marine ScienceFairbanks, AlaskaPhone: 907-474-7229Email: [email protected]

Dr. Evelyn Lessard, Associate ProfessorBiological Oceanography374 Marine Sciences Bldg.University of WashingtonPhone: 206-543-8795Email: [email protected]

Dr. Jeff Napp, Fisheries BiologistFisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI)NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Bldg. 4Seattle, WA 98115-6349Phone: 206-526-4148Email: [email protected]








The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/04.27.01plankton.html




Radio Script2001

King salmon, like these drying on a fish rackalong the Yukon River in Interior Alaska, arean important food source for many ruralAlaskans. Scientists have found that someking salmon returning home to spawn showsigns of a debilitating disease caused by theparasite Ichthyophonus. Photo courtesy Dr.Richard Kocan, University of Washington.

Sick Salmon__________________

INTRO: For years, scientists and fishermen have puzzled over themysterious declines of salmon along the Yukon River—the vastwaterway that stretches 1,500 miles from the Bering Sea throughAlaska to headwaters in Canada. Now, thanks to a perceptivefisherman, scientists are one step closer to understanding the river’ssalmon crash. Doug Schneider has more in this week’s Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio.

STORY: Bill Fliris has lived in the remote village of Tanana, on thebanks of Alaska's Yukon River, for the past 25 years. Each summer, hecatches king salmon weighing 30 pounds or more. The fish feedhimself and his family. But over the years, he's watched firsthand asfewer and fewer salmon returned from the sea to spawn. Scientistscan't explain the declines, and clues are hard to come by. Now, it turnsout that a salmon Fliris caught one day in 1986 may hold at least someof the answers.


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Related Web sites

Marine parasite infectsYukon River king salmon(Anchorage Daily News1/28/04)

2004 Ichthyophonus FinalReport to U.S. Fish andWildlife Service Office ofSubsistence Management

Alaska Wildlife NotebookSeries

Drawings of Alaska fishspecies

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Sick Salmon

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http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/SickSalmon.ram


http://www.adn.com/front/story/4677754p-4631475c.html

http://www.adn.com/front/story/4677754p-4631475c.html

http://www.fish.washington.edu/people/kocan/ichthyophonus_final/

http://www.fish.washington.edu/people/kocan/ichthyophonus_final/



http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/geninfo/gallery/drawings/drawhome.htm

http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/geninfo/gallery/drawings/drawhome.htm

FLIRIS: "My wife and I both noticed it. We had this particular fishthat was different than the rest. This fish had a funny smell to it. Nextyear, though, we found a few more of those fish. The year followingthat, we were actually catching quite a few, and they all had thepeculiar smell. It wasn't a rotten smell, but a vegetable smell."

At first, Fliris didn't make too much out of the odd-smelling fish. Butwithin a few years, a quarter of the king salmon he caught eachsummer smelled funny. The fish had other problems as well.

Infected king salmonflesh. Photo courtesyDr. Richad Kocan,University ofWashington.

FLIRIS: "What we found were small white orgrayish specks in the flesh. Sometimes there'donly be two or three in the whole filleted-outside of a king salmon. Sometimes you'd see iton the heart muscle. It looked like salt sprinkledon the heart muscle. Sometimes there'sevidence of it in the liver and spleen."

White spots indicateinfected king salmonheart. Photo courtesyDr. Richad Kocan,University ofWashington.

In 1998, Fliris sentsamples of the fish tofederal laboratories,which identified a parasite calledIchthyophonus (pronounced Ick-theo-fonus).With funding from the Bering Sea Fisherman'sAssociation, Dr. Richard Kocan, a fishpathologist at the University of Washington,examined more samples and confirmed thefinding.

KOCAN: "Indeed, these fish hadIchthyophonus."

Kocan says Ichthyophonus is common in fishall over the world. But it had only rarely shownup in Yukon River salmon. The parasite can be

deadly to salmon, but isn't harmful to people. Last summer, usingfunds from the U.S./Canada Salmon Treaty, Kocan traveled to Alaskaand examined king salmon caught from the river's mouth at the BeringSea to its headwaters 1,500 miles upstream near Whitehorse, YukonTerritory, Canada.

KOCAN: "And what we found was that as they enter the river as theyreturn to spawn, about 30 percent of the fish were infected. But theydidn't show any signs of disease. As they moved up the river, by thetime they got to Tanana, about 20 percent of the fish showed clinicalsigns of disease. And this is where Bill Fliris was seeing these sickfish. By the time they reached Circle and Dawson, all of the infectedfish, for all practical purposes, showed clinical signs of disease. Theyhad spots on their liver and in their meat and all over the place."



Fish pathologist Dr. RichardKocan, left, takes organsamples from migratingking salmon on the YukonRiver. Kocan says infectedsalmon have white spots ontheir liver, heart or flesh.Photo courtesy Bill Fliris.

Kocan says it's likely the parasite has beenlurking in king salmon since the late1980s, and that it took several generationsof salmon runs for the parasite to becomewell established. Scientists are concernedthat these sick fish may die before theyreach their spawning grounds. If true, itwould help explain why king salmonstocks have crashed on the river.

KOCAN: "It's probably not the majorcause, but I think it could be acontributing cause. This is a hypothesis,but if we're correct that these fish aredying before they reach the spawninggrounds, and they are not spawning—thenthis could mean that for at least the last tenyears they may have had 30 percent fewerfish on the spawning grounds than theypredicted."

This summer, Kocan and researchers from the United States Fish andWildlife Service plan to examine salmon on the spawning groundsalong the upper Yukon. Meanwhile, other questions remain, such ashow the salmon became infected in the first place.

KOCAN: "We don't know. They could be infected either in freshwaterbefore they leave, or they could be infected when they're at sea."

Not everyone believes disease is to blame for the crash. Gene Sandone,regional supervisor with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game,says chum salmon runs on the river—which have much lower rates ofinfection—also have plummeted, and that salmon stocks throughoutwestern Alaska are in trouble.

SANDONE: "We know for sure that the parent years of these salmonreturning—both king and chum—were good. Now we're seeingextremely poor production from these parent years, and the one thingwe can point to is poor ocean survival. We don't think it's a problemwithin freshwater. We think the problem is out in the ocean."

Sandone says because of the river's salmon declines, his agency mayrestrict king salmon harvests for subsistence food, and that there likelywon't be any commercial fishing on the Yukon River this summer.






Bill Fliris, Yukon River fishermanTanana, AlaskaPhone: 907-366-7245Email: [email protected]

Dr. Richard Kocan, ProfessorAquatic and Fishery Sciences250 Fisheries Teaching/Research Bldg.University of WashingtonSeattle, WA 98105Phone: 206-685-2984Email: [email protected]

Gene Sandone, Regional SupervisorArctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim RegionAlaska Department of Fish and GameAnchorage, AlaskaPhone: 907-267-2115Email: [email protected]

Dan Albrecht, Executive DirectorYukon River Drainage Fisheries Association725 Christianson, Suite 3BAnchorage, Alaska 99501Phpme: 907-272-3141Fax: 907-272-3142Email: [email protected]

Jude Henzler, Executive DirectorBering Sea Fisherman’s Association725 Christianson, Suite 3BAnchorage, Alaska 99501Phone: 907-272-3141Fax: 907-272-3142

Dave Daum, Fisheries BiologistU.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceFairbanks, AlaskaPhone: 907-456-0219Email: [email protected]










The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/04.20.01salmon.html




Radio Script2001

__________________

Bubble Gum Walrus__________________

This page contains a supplemental video clip inQuickTime format. Click on the image below toplay the QuickTime video segment.

INTRO: Marine mammals have evolved a number of strategies to staywarm in the frigid Arctic. Seals have short dense fur over a layer ofblubber, while polar bears have thick, long fur that traps air close totheir skin. But walrus have chosen a different path to staying warm, asDoug Schneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio.

STORY: Recently, I saw walruses up close, atone of the state's best places for seeing thesetwo-ton tusked monsters: Round Island, inAlaska's Bristol Bay.

From a vantage atop a cliff overlooking theBering Sea, I saw hundreds of walrus crowdedonto rocky beaches below. An amazing sight, male walrus gather hereeach summer to rest and shed their skin. As walruses clamored andstumbled over each other, my eye caught something odd glidingbeneath the ocean surface, heading toward shore. Seconds later, itshowed itself to be another walrus. But this one was very different.Rather than brown in color—like the ones on the beach—this one wasa pale gray, almost white. After a few minutes ashore, the walrusturned the color of bubble gum.

A bubble gum walrus comes to shore on Round Island. Warning: This file islarge (1.9 MB) and may take a while to download, especially on a slowconnection.

0:29 sec; 1.9 MB



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Related Web sites

Marine Mammals ofAlaska (book)

Pacific Walrus (U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service)

Walrus facts for kids!

Arctic Science Journeys: Bubble Gum Walrus

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http://www.r7.fws.gov/mmm/walrus.html

http://www.seaworld.org/animalbytes/walrusab.html

With me at the time was Dr. Sue Hills, a marine scientist from theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. She told me this walrus had recentlyreturned from feeding far out to sea. The cold water, she said, madetheir skin turn pale. To learn more, she suggested I talk to KathyTurco, who'd done her master's degree on walrus a decade ago.

These days, Kathy Turco is a laboratory technician at the university.She also runs a sound recording business and travels extensively,collecting sound effects for Hollywood movies, television specials andradio programs. I asked her about Round Island's strangely coloredwalrus.

TURCO: "When they get onto land amidst other walruses, and they areable to be in the air, color comes back to them. The bubble gum walrusyou're talking about is one that's been on land, who is pink."

Turco spent an entire summer on Round Island observing walruses tounderstand how they've adapted to an ocean that can be near freezingand air temperatures that routinely dip to well below zero.

TURCO: "Well, if that's the case then their skin cells are able totolerate very low temperatures. If our skin is exposed to very coldtemperatures, we get frostbite and cells die. Walrus skin has a veryhigh tolerance for cold temperatures without the cells actually dying.How do they do that?"

Since the walruses couldn't be approached or handled, Turco had togather data from a distance. She used a specially designed heat-sensinggun. The gun measured the temperature of an area one foot indiameter, from a distance of 60 feet.

TURCO: "What warms up first—his head, his neck, his flippers? Sothat's what I was trying to get a handle on by pointing my gun atdifferent parts of their body."

She also examined skin samples from walruses taken by Eskimohunters. She thought walruses would be much like seals and otherpinnipeds that regulate heat loss by turning blood flow on and off toclusters of vessels near the skin surface, where heat loss would begreatest.

TURCO: "There's a hypothesis that some seals have what are calledanastamoses—arterial venous anastamoses—that some animals use toshunt blood back to the body as a way to conserve heat. It's a way ofshutting down peripheral blood flow. So I wanted to get at whetherthere is a layer of blood vessels that allow them to shunt blood backand forth. And actually what I discovered was that they don't havethese anastamoses. Or at least from my work, I couldn't find theseanastomoses."



While Turco didn't learn exactly how walrus regulate heat, she didnarrow the list of possible physiological mechanisms. She believeswalrus probably regulate heat loss not by shutting down blood flow tothe skin, but by slowing it. She says walrus's thick, tough skin helps byshielding it from the elements.

TURCO: "It's very thick skin. It's comparable to rhinoceros skin.When you cut into it, it's like cutting into a tire. Then there's a layer ofblubber beneath that. The idea is that if you can allow the outside layerof your body to cool, you create a temperature gradient from your skinto your inner core, and there's less heat loss that way."

Turco says walrus most likely constrict muscles around blood vesselsclose to the skin to slow blood flow and conserve heat during coldperiods. When they're hot, they dilate them, letting blood reach theskin and letting body heat escape. But this theory has yet to be proven,and scientists still don't know exactly how skin cells keep fromfreezing when blood flow is restricted. And of course, the walrus aren'ttelling.




Kathy TurcoBox 83305Fairbanks, Alaska 99708Phone: 907-455-4286Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/04.06.01walrus.html





Radio Script2001

__________________

Salmon May Move North__________________

Producer's Note: This story originally aired in 1998. It has beenupdated for this broadcast.

INTRO: Last summer, residents of Alaska's Arctic Ocean coastreported seeing migrating salmon, something that no one canremember ever having seen that far north before. But as DougSchneider reports in this week's Arctic Science Journeys Radio,scientists say a warmer climate may force salmon to look for colderwater far from where they are today.

STORY: When Canadian researcher David Welch began studyingsalmon survival in the North Pacific Ocean, he expected to find salmonthroughout the sea. But the further south he went, the warmer theocean became—and the fewer salmon he found. As he moved intowaters roughly the same latitude as northern California, he didn't findany salmon at all.

WELCH: "We've got about 21,000 days of fishing at sea over a40-year period. For every species of salmon, they get to a certaintemperature and they just stop. We've almost never caught a salmonsouth of those temperatures in warmer waters."

If salmon are that sensitive to temperature, Welch wondered, whatwould happen to salmon if current models about how the globalclimate might warm actually came to pass? Under those models, theamount of the greenhouse gas—carbon dioxide—in the earth'satmosphere is expected to double during the next 50 years. That in turnwould cause the North Pacific Ocean to warm by as much as sixdegrees Fahrenheit. If the models prove correct, Welch says the colderwater that salmon prefer would no longer be found in the NorthPacific.

WELCH: "We found that the temperatures didn't even exist in thePacific Ocean. They were up in the Bering Sea. That would meaneverybody's salmon—Canadian, Alaskan, Washington, Oregon,Japanese, and Russian—might not be in the Pacific Ocean at all formuch of their life span."


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Related Web sites

Fisheries and OceansCanada

Global climate change:Fisheries

Sockeye distributionunder current and futureclimates (map)

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Salmon May Move North



http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/ra/SalmonMoveNorth.ram


http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/

http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/adaptation/sensitivities/map5.htm

http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/adaptation/sensitivities/map5.htm

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/link/hadcm2/abstracts/Welch_fig.html



Of course, Welch's predictions depend to a great extent on just howmuch the North Pacific Ocean actually warms up. Scientists cautionthat the models used to predict climate change aren't perfect. Still,scientists generally agree that David Welch is on to something. MiloAdkison is a fisheries professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

ADKISON: "This scenario is plausible and very worrying. The reasonit's worrisome is that if you get global warming, then the habitatdisappears. We could lose large populations of salmon."

But don't look for salmon to change their migration patterns overnight.Welch says warming of the ocean will be a gradual event, and thatsalmon will probably return to their traditional spawning grounds formany years to come. But he says fishery managers need to understandand consider how a changing ocean will affect salmon populations.




Dr. David WelchFisheries and Oceans Canada3225 Stephenson Point RoadNanaimo, BC V9T 1K3250-756-7257Email: [email protected]

Dr. Milo AdkisonUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesFisheries DivisionJuneau, AlaskaPhone: 907-465-6251Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/03.30.01salmon.html






Radio Script2001

__________________

Polar Bears Change Diet__________________

INTRO: There’s mounting evidence that climate change is causingdramatic changes in the Arctic. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek’s Arctic Science Journeys Radio, clues left in the fat of polarbears are helping scientists understand how climate warming threatensthe survival of the world’s largest bear.

Polar bear range,feeding habits, lifehistory and more...

STORY: Each fall, hundreds of polar bearsgather along the western shore of Canada'sHudson Bay. They arrive gaunt and straggly,having fasted for months as they waited onland for winter to return. Within weeks,though, the bay will be frozen and the bearswill be gone, having ventured far onto the icein search of ringed seals, their favorite prey.

But over the last decade, the bay has beenfreezing later and melting earlier. Polar bear biologist Dr. Ian Stirling,with the Canadian Wildlife Service, says climate warming is makingfor shorter winters—and that means polar bears aren't finding enoughseals to eat.

STIRLING: "The climate has been warming quite a bit in westernHudson Bay, and it's causing the ice to break up a little bit earlier. So itshortens the time that the bears have to feed on ringed seals, at the verybest time of the year, which is late June and early July. So the bears,over the last 20 years, have lost approximately 15 percent of theircondition (body weight). And so one of the things we forecasted anumber of years ago was that if the climate warmed and we had moreopen water—especially in the winter—that we might expect to seechanges in the number of bearded seals and of harbor seals. We thinkwe're seeing some of that and we thought that one way to try andmeasure it would be to look at the long-chain fatty acids in bear fat. It'sthe kind of work that Sara Iverson does, in which she can look at thefat of a predator and determine what species of prey it's eating."


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Related Web sites

Canadian Wildlife Service

United States Fish andWildlife Service

Dalhousie University

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Polar Bears Change Diet

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http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/cwshom_e.html

http://www.fws.gov/

http://www.fws.gov/

http://www.dal.ca/

Dr. Sara Iverson, a physiologist at Dalhousie University in NovaScotia, Canada, has been working with Stirling to understand howpolar bears are responding to a warmer Arctic. She says fatty acidsfound in seals accumulate in the tissues of polar bears. By identifyingthese fatty acids, she can tell what species of seals the bears have beeneating.

IVERSON: "I've found that fatty acids, which are the building blocksof fat, can reveal a great deal of information about an animal's diet. Inany marine sample there are probably about 70 fatty acids that can beidentified. They differ according to ecosystem, according to species'feeding habits. Because fatty acids travel up the food chain intact, thefat that is stored in the predator begins to reflect and look like amixture of what it's consuming in the diet."

Early in her work, Iverson found that polar bears were, as expected,eating mostly ringed seals. More recently, however, Iverson says polarbears have begun eating other seals, especially harbor seals andbearded seals.

IIVERSON: "It's been presumed for a long time that they concentrateon one or a few seal species. And what we're finding is that, dependingon the location and changes in the ecosystem, their diets are changingdramatically. We're seeing bears having to shift to things like beardedseals and harbor seals, because the ringed seals, which areice-dependent, aren't quite as available. That's because when the icecover isn't there, the bears can't get to them."

Ian Stirling says the change in the polar bear diet is due to warmerArctic winters, which has reduced the bay's ice cover, something thathas made for better habitat for bearded seals and harbor seals. But hesays the benefits are likely to be short-term, and that polar bears mayone day be a rare sight around the bay.

STIRLING: "In Hudson bay, all the ice melts completely in thesummertime, so every bear in the population has to come ashore andlive on its stored fat reserves for four months, and the pregnant femalesfor eight months. So being able to prey on harbor seals and beardedseals will help them out in the short term. But ultimately if the climatewarms sufficiently for Hudson Bay to be ice-free most of the year,then it's likely that polar bears will disappear from that part of theworld."






Sara IversonDalhousie UniversityDepartment of BiologyHalifax, NS B3H 4JlCANADAPhone: 902-494-2566Email: [email protected]

Dr. Ian StirlingCanadian Wildlife ServicePrairie and Northern RegionEnvironment CanadaNorthern Forestry Research Centre5320 - 122 StreetEdmonton, AB T6H 3S5CANADAPhone: 780-435-7349



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/03.23.01bears.html





Radio Script2001

Jim Kruse is the new curator of entomology at the University of AlaskaMuseum. He says Alaska may harbor thousands of undiscovered insectspecies, including several hundred species of moths. Photo by KerynnFisher, UA Museum.

Archiving Alaska's Insects__________________

INTRO: Many of us have a teacher to thank for turning us ontointeresting hobbies that evolve into lifelong careers. Jim Kruse, thenew curator of entomology at the University of Alaska Museum inFairbanks, is no exception. As Doug Schneider reports in this week'sArctic Science Journeys Radio, one of Jim Kruse's first tasks will be tocatalog the insects that live in the far north.

STORY: Jim Kruse owes his interest in butterflies to his first-gradeteacher.

KRUSE: "I tend to blame my first-grade teacher. She used to bring inbutterfly nets and monarch caterpillars and we'd observe them as kidsand watch them turn into butterflies. It was a good time, and neat stuff.I pretty quickly became interested in the diversity."

His fascination with insects, especially the ones that fly, became


Download RealAudio

Related Web sites

University of AlaskaMuseum

Arctic ArchivalObservatory

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Archiving Alaska's Insects

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http://www.uaf.edu/museum/index.html

http://www.uaf.edu/museum/index.html

http://arctos.museum.uaf.edu:8080/AAO/

http://arctos.museum.uaf.edu:8080/AAO/

deeper as he grew up. Whenever he got the chance, he'd roam nearbywoods and fields—net in hand—looking for a butterfly to add to hiscollection. Today, he has 10,000 butterflies and moths in his personalcollection. His pursuit of these winged beauties lasted even through astint in the U.S. Navy, where his hobby sometimes received strangelooks from his buddies.

KRUSE: "It's OK when you're a kid. But when people saw an adultmale walking around with a butterfly net, they really kind ofwondered."

After military service, Jim Kruse earned a doctorate degree in thestudy of insects, called entomology, at the University of California,Berkeley. Recently, Jim Kruse was named curator of entomology atthe University of Alaska Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska. His first task:to sort out the museum's new collection of more than 100,000 insectspecimens that are a part of the museum's Arctic ArchivalObservatory.

KRUSE: "My job is generally to get the collection in shape here at themuseum. It's a brand-new collection. Everything that I'm working onhere is a new donation. Right now it's a large collection of aquatics,things like mosquitoes and black flies, but also mayflies and stoneflies."

As you might expect, butterflies and moths are Kruse's forte. He saysthat while much is known about Alaska's 83 species of butterflies, heestimates there may be as many as 800 to 1,000 species of moths in thestate, of which only 200 or so have been identified.

KRUSE: "I see the surprise on people's faces when you tell them howmany insects there really are. The common perception is thatmosquitoes and black flies are pretty much the only things up here. Butactually, for the latitude, Alaska is surprisingly diverse. There are a lotof different habitat types. You have Arctic tundra versus boreal forests,versus alpine regions, and of course waterways and things."

And here's something else interesting about moths and butterflies.Many of us think of butterflies as colorful, and moths as their uglysiblings. Kruse says that's not the case in Alaska.

KRUSE: "One of the common ways to tell moths from butterflies,especially down in more southerly latitudes, is that moths are kind ofdrab and they fly at night, and butterflies are pretty and they fly duringthe day. Well, as you may notice, up here in the summer, it's lightmuch more often. You tend to have a very large number of day-flyingmoths, which are every bit as pretty if not prettier. A lot of the mothsare very beautiful with orange and yellow, with contrasting black andwhite and orange."



Along with chronicling the museum's insect collection, Jim Kruse willhelp scientists fill in the gaps in Alaska's bug knowledge. He'sespecially interested in learning more about the circumpolardistribution of moths and butterflies. He also plans to get into Alaska'sbackcountry to look for new, as yet unidentified insect species, and tobegin research on such topics as the impact of climate warming on thestate's insects.




Jim Kruse, curator of entomologyUniversity of Alaska Museum907 Yukon DriveUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks 99775-6960Phone: 907-474-5579Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/03.02.01insects.html





Radio Script2001

__________________

Avalanche!__________________

INTRO: Traveling and recreating in Alaska’s backcountry used to beenjoyed only by the experienced mountaineer and skier. These days,thanks to improved equipment, just about anyone can get themselveshigh into the state’s snow-covered mountains. And that’s the problem.As Doug Schneider reports in this week’s Arctic Science JourneysRadio, the backcountry can be a beautiful but deadly place.

STORY: Jill Fredston spends her winter days either teaching peopleabout the dangers of avalanches or, all too often, digging people out ofthem. Fredston is an avalanche specialist and codirector of the AlaskaMountain Safety Center, based in Anchorage. She says more peopleare getting into trouble in the backcountry.

FREDSTON: "The number of fatalities nationwide has beenincreasing. That makes sense because there's more and more backcountry travelers out there in the winter and equipment has gottenbetter and better, so we're jumping into terrain that we didn't use to (gointo)."

It used to be that the backcountry was accessible only to those peopleexperienced enough to ski or climb into it. While Fredston used to getcalls to rescue trapped skiers and climbers, she says snowmachinersare now the ones getting into the most trouble.

FREDSTON: "The statistic that's really been changing in recent yearsis that we're having more and more snowmachiners getting caught.These snowmachines are powerful. They can travel into steep terrainunder a broader variety of snow conditions. We've had quite a fewmore fatalities in recent years. In the old days you had to be a prettygood rider to get up into country that could potentially kill you. Now,sometimes the people I dig out of the snow, are people for whom itmight be their first day on a snowmachine."

In Alaska, 13 snowmachiners died in avalanches in just a six-weekperiod during 1999. Last year, seven people died. And so far this year,three people have been killed.


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Fredston, who's been teaching avalanche safety for 20 years, says mostof the snowmachiners who died were practicing what's called"highmarking." That's where a snowmachiner races up steep amountain slope as high as possible. The maneuver is risky because itcan trigger an avalanche that can kill the highmarker as well asonlookers.

FREDSTON: "I think the most important thing to remember is thatavalanches don't happen by accident. They happen for reasons. Wetend to portray them, the media portrays them, as these freakevents—that avalanches come roaring out of the mountains and nail usas innocent victims. About 95 percent of the time it's our weight on ornear the slope that causes the problem."

Fredston says that in a way, this is good news, because it makes itpossible to teach people how not to be the avalanche trigger.

FREDSTON: "We tend to think too much like people when we're inthe mountains. We make our decisions based on human factors like,'Well, there's a track on the slope, so it must be fine.' Or, 'It's ablue-sky day, what could happen to me?' Or, 'I've been here a hundredtimes before and nothing's ever happened.' Really, when we're in themountains we need to think like a mountain."

Fredston says avalanches happen as a result of the interaction betweenthree variables. First is the terrain. Is the slope steep enough to carry aslide? Next is the snow: The snowpack consists of a combination ofstrong and weak layers. Finally, weather plays a role in avalanches.Fredston says understanding the variables is key to seeing the clues toan avalanche.

FREDSTON: "Most of the time when I go to an accident site, the cluesare all around. It's not a matter of there were just one or two and theywere very subtle. It's usually three or four or five. The best one of all isthat there are avalanches on similar slopes, facing a similar way, and ofa similar angle. That clue isn't always there, but when it is we don'twant to ignore it. There are whoomphing noises—the collapse of aweak layer. There are shooting cracks, indicating that the slab iswound up, that it has elastic energy like a rubber band. That makes itpossible to propagate a fracture across the slope. Maybe the snow isreally wind-loaded. In other words maybe strong winds haveredistributed the snow. You need to be particularly suspicious of theseleeward slopes. Maybe there's hollow-sounding snow. That says thereis a less-dense, weaker layer."

Although Fredston has seen her share of tragedy on Alaska'smountains, she doesn't believe highmarking should be banned. Shesays there are ways to make it safer.



FREDSTON: "One of the scenarios we see all the time insnowmachiner accidents is that one person goes up the slope and getsstuck. Another person then comes to help, and now you have 1,000pounds of force all tweaking the snowpack in the same place. Or theperson comes up above that stuck person and is going to turn downand help them and ends up triggering a slide down onto the personbelow."

Fredston's advice: let the stuck person dig himself out while you watchfrom a safe distance and prepare to lend a hand if an avalanche occurs.




Jill Fredston, CodirectorThe Alaska Mountain Safety Center9140 Brewsters DriveAnchorage, AK 99516Phone:(907) 345-3566Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/02.23.01avalanche.html





Radio Script2001

A factory trawler offloads its catch of pollockat Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Photo courtesyAt-sea Processors Association.

Industry Funds Sea Lion Science__________________

INTRO: While scientists insist they don’t have enough information toblame anyone for the decline of Alaska’s Steller sea lions,fishermen—who catch the fish sea lions eat—have taken the brunt ofthe blame. Now, as Doug Schneider reports in this week’s ArcticScience Journeys Radio, fishermen themselves are paying for researchaimed at understanding their role in Bering Sea declines.

STORY: This summer, scientists will head out to Alaska's Bering Seain hopes of learning why Steller sea lion populations and other marinespecies have plummeted. You might think money for such researchwould come from any of several state and federal agencies thatmanage these resources. But in fact, the research is being funded bycommercial fishermen themselves.

Heather McCarty is the Alaska Affairs director for the At-seaProcessors Association, an industry organization of factory trawlersthat catch and process pollock in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.

McCARTY: "There seems to be a lot of scientific uncertainly aboutthe Bering Sea in particular and the Gulf (of Alaska) as to thecondition of the resources, both the fish resources and the marinemammal and other resources. We don't have the information that weneed as an industry—and I'm saying 'we' including the management


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Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Industry Funds Sea Lion Science

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folks—to properly sort out the scientific issues that confront us now."

To help scientists do that, the Pollock Conservation Cooperative, anarm of the At-sea Processors, recently donated more than one milliondollars to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to study everything fromsea lion diets and ocean currents, to the distribution of pollock inwaters off Alaska. Dr. Andrew Trites is a marine mammal researcherat the University of British Columbia. He received a grant to studywhether pollock that fishermen catch are also fish needed by sea lions.

TRITES: "The central issue is how much competition is actuallyoccurring between Steller sea lions and commercial fisheries. Andwhat we want to do is try to estimate how much overlap there isbetween the foraging range of Steller sea lions—in other words, wherethey're going to get food—and where commercial fisheries areoperating. The other thing we want to look at is the distribution ofSteller sea lions within critical sea lion habitat relative to thedistribution of fishing."

Another project entails installing devices called acoustic data loggerson pollock vessels. The device works much like a fish finder, allowingscientists to plot the location, size and depth of fish schoolsencountered by the pollock fleet. Dr. Terry Quinn, a UAF fisheriesscientist, will lead the study.

QUINN: "Ideally, if you have these things on all the time as thefishermen are going about their business, they're encountering(pollock) schools all along their way. Over time, what you're seeing isthe effect of fishing on the distribution of fish schools. You see ifthey're (pollock stocks) becoming smaller, if they're becoming lessdense."

Other researchers will study the distribution of pollock, the role ofkiller whales in sea lion declines, and near-shore survival of sockeyesalmon in Kvichak Bay, Alaska. In all, 17 projects received funding.

Money for the research comes from a self-imposed levy on the pollockassociation's seven member fishing companies. The PollockConservation Cooperative Research Center, established last year at theUAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, administers the researchgrants. Scientists submit proposals, which are peer-reviewed by a teamof university and federal scientists, as well as industry representatives.

But not everyone is happy with the industry-funded research program.Environmental organizations say it's inappropriate for the university toconduct research on behalf of a special interest group.

Niaz Dorry is a fisheries campaigner with Greenpeace.



DORRY: "It might affect the university's credibility, frankly. It mightaffect how people will perceive whatever document the universityproduces at the end of their studies on the Steller sea lion and theBering Sea, and the effect of fishing."

Heather McCarty, of the At-sea Processors, disagrees. She says some59 Alaska communities are part owners of the association's companies.Because so many Alaskans rely on fishing for their livelihoods, shesays industry needs to be involved in finding solutions to the declines.

McCARTY: "The scientific research that probably needed to be moreintense over the last 10 or 15 years probably would have given us a lotof answers that we need now."

The pollock industry donated an additional $380,000 to Alaska PacificUniversity and Sheldon Jackson College for their fisheries andoceanography programs. Altogether, the Pollock ConservationCooperative gave 1.5 million dollars to research and higher educationin the state.




Niaz Dorry, Fisheries CampaignerGreenpeace Oceans Campaign9A Harbor LoopGloucester, Massachusetts 01930Phone: 978-283-5893Email: [email protected]

Heather McCarty, DirectorAlaska AffairsAt-sea Processors AssociationJuneau, Alaska,Phone: (907) 586-4260Email: [email protected]

Dr. Terrance Quinn, ProfessorUniversity of Alaska FairbanksSchool of Fisheries and Ocean SciencesFisheries DivisionJuneau, AlaskaPhone: 907-465-5389Email: [email protected]






Dr. Andrew Trites, DirectorMarine Mammal Research UnitUniversity of British ColumbiaVancouver, BC CanadaHut B-3 Rm. 20Phone: 604-822-8182Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/02.16.01industry.html





Radio Script2001

USFWS Inspector Chris Andrews holds anash tray made from a monkey skull seizedfrom a passenger at the Ted StevensInternational Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.(Courtesy Associated Press.)

Anchorage Airport a Hubfor Endangered Wildlife Trade

__________________

INTRO: According to the World Wildlife Fund, the United States isthe ultimate destination for most of the endangered plants and animalstaken illegally around the world. As Doug Schneider reports in thisweek's Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a fair number of theseendangered species are smuggled into the United States through theTed Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.

STORY: Many of the items confiscated each year by law enforcementofficers with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were brought into the U.S.by people who just didn't know that what they had was illegal.

Things like sealskin slippers and gloves, walrus tusks, and whale teethare popular souvenirs, says Chris Andrews, a wildlife inspectionofficer with the service. Most people readily show officers what theyhave, but he says a few try to slip their souvenirs past inspectors.

ANDREWS: "We ask three or four times: 'Do you have anyhandicrafts?' [They'll say] 'No.' 'Are you sure you don't have any


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souvenirs? You didn't pick up anything made out of ivory?' 'No.' We'llemphasize it again, and then when we open their bag a tusk falls out.They say, 'Oh, I forgot I had that in there.'"

Andrews conducts most of his inspections at Alaska's AnchorageInternational Airport. The airport is a hub for international passengerflights to Russia and the Far East, as well as a major sorting locationfor several package shipping companies. He and one other full-timeagent work alongside U.S. Customs agents to stem the flow ofendangered or illegal wildlife into and out of the country.

ANDREWS: "We have a number of passenger flights that comethrough Anchorage. We work right alongside U.S. Customs. We haveall of the authority of a Customs inspector. We'll pull people over andask them what kind of souvenirs they're bringing back."

First-time offenders typically have their illegal items confiscated, andusually no charges are filed. It's only when an individual has beencaught several times that charges are brought. Some people will doalmost anything to make money from the illegal wildlife trade.

ANDREWS: "We detained a woman who was acting very nervous inthe passenger area. Customs asked her some questions and it ended upthat she had $9,900 on her. She had just purchased 13 cartons ofcigarettes up in the Duty Free shop. If you have over $10,000 you haveto report it to customs. It seemed very obvious she was trying not toreport her money. She was very nervous and sweaty, so a femalecustoms inspector took her in the back and found a bear gall bladder inone of her bra cups."

One of the world's largest air cargo hubs, Anchorage is home toFederal Express and United Parcel Service. Andrews says this is wheremuch of the illegal wildlife trade is conducted.

ANDREWS: "We actually go over to those hubs and do randomselections, and we're finding all kinds of illegal wildlife items: monkeyskulls, rhino horn medicines, coral, elephant ivory. We make probablya seizure or two each day."

In an average year, Alaska inspectors will examine around 3,000shipments entering the country. Nationwide, the service's 90 inspectorswill look through 80,000 shipments and impose more than $2 millionin fines and penalties. While that sounds like a lot, the World WildlifeFund estimates that, nationwide, U.S. wildlife officers intercept justone percent of the illegal wildlife trade entering the United States eachyear. Andrews agrees that a lot of activity goes undetected.

ANDREWS: "We actually had two inspectors come up beforeChristmas and we did a blitz on the Russian flights and Federal



Express. Say that normally in one week we look at 100 shipments. Welooked at 200 shipments the week they were here, and basically wedoubled what we found before."

Still, Andrews enjoys his job as a wildlife enforcement officer. He hasa degree in forestry and did a stint with the Peace Corps in Africabefore joining the Fish and Wildlife Service. When not at theAnchorage airport, he sometimes pulls duty at the Alaska/Canadaborder, where he says people there try to get through with all kinds ofthings as well.

ANDREWS: "You really have to scratch your head when theWinnebago comes up with a ten-foot piece of whale baleen strapped tothe side of the Winnebago, and you have to turn them around."

Baleen whales are a protected species in the United States, and theimport and export of baleen or other whale parts is illegal.

OUTRO:In the column at right, you'll find links to information aboutwhat can and cannot be imported into or exported from the UnitedStates. This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mDoug Schneider.

Audio version and related Web sites (above right)


Chris Andrews, Enforcement OfficerUnited States Fish and Wildlife Service1011 East Tudor Rd., Suite 155Anchorage Alaska 99503-6199Phone: 907-271-6456Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/02.09.01trade.html





Radio Script2001

__________________

Nuke Plan Threatens Arctic__________________

INTRO: Japan relies on nuclear power for 30 percent of its electricityneeds. By contrast, about 20 percent of the electricity produced in theUnited States comes from nuclear power. What to do with theradioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants has long been aproblem for scientists. Japan’s solution is to ship spent uranium fuel toEngland and France, where it’s reprocessed and used to generate yetmore power. But as Doug Schneider reports in this week’s ArcticScience Journeys Radio, a plan to ship these radioactive materialsthrough the Arctic Ocean is drawing concern among people living inthe Arctic.

STORY: On January 19, the armed British freighter Pintail left theFrench port of Cherbourg loaded with MOX fuel, a mixture of highlyradioactive plutonium and uranium oxide. The ship rounded Africa'sCape Horn this week and will pass between New Zealand andAustralia before arriving in Japan in late March, where Japaneseofficials say the fuel will be fed into a nuclear reactor.

Earlier shipments of MOX fuel from Europe, as well as nuclear wastefrom Japan, have raised concern among some 50 countries along theship's route.

Now, under a plan being negotiated between the Japanese governmentand Russia's Murmansk Shipping Company, future such shipmentswould go through the Arctic, where presumably there are fewer peopleto protest. Apparently, no one considered George Ahmaogak, mayor ofthe North Slope Borough in Barrow, Alaska, a community of InupiatEskimos along Alaska's Arctic Ocean coast.

AHMAOGAK: "For a period of time, we've been dealing with a lot ofpollution that has circulated here on the Arctic coast, especially in ourocean. This proposal to ship nuclear waste is something we certainlydon't agree with."

According to Russia's St. Petersburg Times, the Murmansk ShippingCompany plans to test the Arctic Ocean shipping route this summer.


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The Nuclear History Site

Terms: MOX—Mixedplutonium and uraniumoxide fuel.

Nuclear fact: In theUnited States, there arecurrently 104 commercialnuclear power reactorslicensed to operate in 31

Arctic Science Journeys Radio: Nuke Plan Threatens Arctic

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The ship won't carry nuclear material, but is designed to explore thefeasibility of shipping through the Arctic's ice-filled waters. The firstshipment of MOX fuel could begin as early as 2002. Mayor Ahmaogaksays he'll be watching.

AHMAOGAK: "If this pilot test program takes place, we're going tomonitor that ship when it crosses the polar Arctic. It's a concern andwe don't want to see any contaminants or accidents."

Ahmaogak isn't alone in his concern over a potential nuclear accidentin the Arctic. Officials in Norway and Greenland have made publictheir concerns over the proposal. The environmental group Greenpeacealso has launched a campaign to point out the dangers. Damon Moglenis a nuclear campaigner with Greenpeace International.

MOGLEN: "There are all kinds of scenarios in which you can imaginethe containers are broken open and either in a fire situation and thematerial is spewed out into a plume, or the material itself is dumpedinto the water and begins to circulate. Certainly it could destroy anyfisheries, or any kind of hunting or gathering in the area. You couldreally have a catastrophe."

Over the past decade, 160 shipments of spent uranium fuel were sentfrom Japan to Europe for reprocessing into MOX fuel. The fuel isreturned to Japan in molten glass tubes housed inside large stainlesssteel casks. According to the French energy company COGEMA, oneship each year would make the voyage to Japan carrying the fuel.

MOX fuel has been used for more than 30 years to power reactors inEngland, France, Germany, and Belgium. More recently, the nuclearpower community has promoted plutonium-based MOX fuel as a wayto eliminate surplus U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons. Onceconverted, the plutonium would be unsuitable for making nuclearweapons. Dr. Andy Klein is head of nuclear engineering at OregonState University.

KLEIN: "That's absolutely true. You can take weapons-gradeplutonium and mix it with uranium and then it becomes a mixed oxidefuel, or MOX fuel, and you can use it in a nuclear reactor to generateelectricity and get a useful product out of Cold War material."

However, such plans are opposed by safe energy advocates,nonproliferation proponents, and environmental organizations that citethe increased risks of using plutonium as a fuel. Greenpeace's DamonMoglen.

MOGLEN: "That's a bit like saying we're going to use dynamite in aModel-T Ford. It just doesn't make any sense. Plutonium is extremelyexpensive, far more expensive than uranium, and much more

states. In 1997 U.S.electric generatingcapability totaledapproximately 610gigawatts. Nuclearenergy accounted forapproximately 20 percentof this capability. Source:U.S. Nuclear RegulatoryAgency



http://www.nrc.gov/

http://www.nrc.gov/

dangerous to use."

Under the agreement now being negotiated with Russia, the MurmanskShipping Company may transport up to 600 tons of spent uranium fuelfrom Japan to Europe through the Arctic over the next ten years. Afterreprocessing, the highly radioactive plutonium oxide would return toJapan over the same route. Dr. Klein says that while nuclear materialshave inherent risks, there are safeguards.

KLEIN: "It's probably the most watched-after shipment of any materialon the planet. "

In Alaska, Mayor George Ahmaogak is considering just what he'll doabout the possibility that such ships will pass close to his community.

AHMAOGAK: "If there is an opportunity as a municipal governmentrepresenting the North Slope of Alaska to protest and convince ourstate government, then we'll certainly consider that. But even if wedon't, I'm sure the other international communities and aboriginalpeoples such as in Canada and Greenland are certainly going to remarkabout this plan and probably protest."

OUTRO:This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mDoug Schneider.



George Ahmaogak, MayorNorth Slope BoroughPO Box 69Barrow, Alaska, USA 99723Phone: (907) 852-2611

Damon Moglen, nuclear campaignerGreenpeace Intl.Washington, D.C.Phone: (202) 319-2409Email: [email protected]

Dr. Andy KleinDepartment Head and Professor of Nuclear EngineeringDirector, Oregon Space Grant ProgramOregon State UniversityE130 Radiation CenterCorvallis, OR 97331-5902Phone: (541) 737-2343Email: [email protected]







The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/02.02.01nuke.html




Radio Script2001

__________________

Nations Agree: Humans Cause ClimateWarming

__________________

INTRO: Delegates from more than 100 countries met in Shanghai,China, this week, and approved a United Nations report that for thefirst time places the blame for climate warming squarely on theburning of fossil fuels. As Doug Schneider reports in this week's ArcticScience Journeys Radio, scientists believe global warming will have aparticularly profound effect on the Arctic.

STORY:The meeting was of the United Nations IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC). Delegates from 101 nations,including the United States, Japan, England, and Saudi Arabia, spentfour days going over each line of the 1,000-page report.

Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Centerfor Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, was present whendelegates voted unanimously to approve the report. He says the panelissued its strongest statement yet about the cause of climate warming.

TRENBERTH: "There were some statements, and one of thehighlighted statements which will probably receive a lot of press is thefollowing: 'There is new and stronger evidence that most of thewarming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to humanactivities.' That's an official statement of the IPCC."

Scientists say average global temperatures have increased by aboutone-half a degree over the last 100 years. Trenberth says much of thatwarming occurred within the last decade.

TRENBERTH: "The warmest year was 1998; the warmest decade wasthe last ten years, that includes the year 2000. The year 2000 as awhole was very close to 1999 in terms of its overall warmth. Thewarmth of recent years is the big factor in establishing that this stuff isreal."

A better understanding of how the climate works also has allowed


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scientists to make predictions of what the global climate will likely bein the future. The UN panel's report predicts that if emissions ofgreenhouse gasses are not curtailed, world temperatures will increaseover the next century from 1.4 degrees to as much as 5.8 degreesCelsius—that's about 3 degrees to 11 degrees Fahrenheit.

TRENBERTH: "The message for the general public should be that thisis a real problem, that climate change is happening. It's projected tooccur at a rate in the future that's unlike anything seen in the last10,000 years, and that rate is likely therefore to be disruptive."

While the average global temperature has risen less than a degree overthe last century, temperatures in the Arctic have increased far more.Dr. Gunter Weller is the director of the Center for Global Change andArctic System Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

WELLER: "There's no doubt that the climate signal has shown atemperature increase on the order of one degree Celsius per decadeover the last three decades in the annual mean. A much strongersignal."

Weller says such warming has already triggered changes in the Arcticclimate. Melting permafrost, warmer winters and thinner sea ice overthe North Pole are just a few of the changes.

WELLER: "You see it physically in the climate in which we live herein Fairbanks. The climate in winter is considerably warmer than it usedto be when I came here 30 years ago. The consequences are also prettynoticeable. Colleagues of mine here have looked at the glaciermass-balances around the state and also in other parts of the Arctic.Practically all the glaciers are having a negative mass-balance. Theyare melting. They are losing mass and beginning to raise sea level,which is an indication of a warmer climate. Even more pronounced isthe warming of the permafrost. The whole picture is pretty systematic.All the snow and ice features, including river ice and lake ice, arediminished as a consequence of a warmer climate. There's no doubtthat climate warming has made big transformations in the Arcticenvironment almost everywhere."

Now that most industrial countries have agreed on what's causing theproblem, they must next agree on how to reduce emissions of carbondioxide and other so-called greenhouse gasses that cause climatewarming.






Kevin Trenberth, DirectorNational Center for Atmospheric Research1850 Table Mesa Dr.Boulder, CO 80305Phone: 303-497-1000.Email: [email protected]

Gunter Weller, DirectorCenter for Global Change and Arctic System ResearchUniversity of Alaska FairbanksP.O. Box 757320Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7320Phone: 907-474-7371Email: [email protected]



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/01.26.01climate.html






Radio Script2001

__________________

Green Seafood__________________

INTRO: As consumers, many of us want to know that the products webuy won't harm the environment or us. That's especially importantwhen it comes to seafood, since much of the seafood we eat still comesfrom the ocean. A labeling program that lets consumers know if thefish they eat comes from well-managed stocks is having an impact inAlaska. As Doug Schneider reports in this week's Arctic ScienceJourneys Radio, one Alaska fishery has met the program's certificationstandards, but another faces opposition from environmentalists.

STORY: Some people might remember the controversy more than adecade ago over dolphins killed by tuna fishermen in the South PacificOcean. The flap ended only after the industry agreed to fishingmethods that reduced dolphin deaths. As an incentive, companies thatsold tuna caught with such methods could market the catch as dolphinsafe. Such labeling was a hit among consumers, and launched an era ofso-called "green" labeling.

More recently, Alaska seafood has gotten in on the trend.

In December, Alaska salmon became the first U.S. fishery certified asenvironmentally friendly by the Marine Stewardship Council, anonprofit organization that uses green labeling as a way to improvefisheries management. Jim Humphreys is the U.S. director of theMarine Stewardship Council.

HUMPHREYS: "The mechanism by which we do that is that we allowfisheries that are interested to be assessed against a standard forwell-managed and sustainable fisheries. For those fisheries thatthrough an independent audit meet our standards, seafood companiesthat sell products from those fisheries can use a label to let consumersknow those products have come from well-managed, sustainablefisheries."

Alaska salmon had a fairly easy time getting the MSC's approval. Thesame may not be said of another Alaska fishery. The state's pollockindustry is seeking council certification amid concerns about the


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Marine StewardshipCouncil

At-Sea ProcessorsAssociation

Greenpeace

More about Niaz Dorry

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http://www.msc.org/

http://www.msc.org/




http://www.time.com/time/reports/environment/heroes/heroesgallery/0,2967,dorry,00.html

industry's impact on endangered Steller sea lions. Although attempts toreach the industry for comment were unsuccessful, their publishedposition is that the pollock fishery is well managed and has not beenproven to cause declines in Steller sea lions and other marine species.

Francine Bennis is coordinator of the Alaska Oceans Network, aconsortium of environmental organizations based in Anchorage. Shetakes issue with such claims. She says industrial-scale harvests ofpollock for fish sticks and imitation crab may well be taking a toll onAlaska's marine ecosystem.

BENNIS: "We oppose the certification of the pollock fishery assustainable. The fishery is unique perhaps in this certification processin that a federal judge has ruled that the fishery is in violation of theEndangered Species Act. We have serious questions about this fisherybeing considered sustainable in a single-species context, and we'reconcerned that it could be considered sustainable in an ecosystemcontext."

Jim Humphreys, with the Marine Stewardship Council, won't speculateon the pollock industry's odds at winning certification. He says that ascientific review team will have a lot to consider in its decision.

HUMPHREYS: "It's really going to depend on what the science showson how severe the problem is or how much data is really missing oncethey really get into it."

Although green labels are popular among consumers, Niaz Dorry saysthe MSC's decision on the pollock fishery will test whether thestewardship council is an effective voice for good fisheriesmanagement. Dorry is a Greenpeace fisheries campaigner who coversAlaska issues from the New England fishing town of Gloucester,Massachusetts.

DORRY: "From where I sit, giving the pollock industry the MSC labelwill prove the point that some folks, including us, have been makingabout the MSC, which is that it is a green-wash label. It's a label thatmeans something other than what it represents. It makes the consumersfeel good but it really might not do much for the oceans. Of course if itdoesn't get it, then it gives us an opportunity to think more about theMSC and not have it lose credibility in our eyes."

Besides Alaska salmon, the only other fisheries certified as sustainableare the Western Australian rock lobster fishery and England's ThamesRiver blackwater herring fishery. A decision on the pollock fishery isexpected within 18 months.

OUTRO:This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'm



Doug Schneider.



Francine Bennis, CoordinatorAlaska Oceans Network41 West 5th Ave., Suite 402Anchorage, Alaska 99501Email: [email protected]: 907-929-3553

Niaz Dorry, Fisheries CampaignerGreenpeace Oceans Campaign9A Harbor LoopGloucester, Massachusetts 01930Email: [email protected]: 978-283-5893

Jim Humphreys, U.S. DirectorMarine Stewardship Council4005 20th Ave., W 221Fisherman's Terminal, West Mall Bldg.Seattle, WA 98199Email: [email protected]: 206-691-0188



The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/01.19.01seafood.html







Radio Script2001

__________________

Alaska Marine Species List__________________

INTRO: Alaska's coast is home to hundreds of marine plants, fish andanimals. Biologist Brad Stevens should know. He's personally countedthem. Doug Schneider has more in this week's Arctic Science JourneysRadio.

STORY: So far, Brad Stevens' list totals more than 750 species ofcrabs, fish, plants, and marine mammals—everything from thequarter-sized fuzzy crab to the one-ton Steller sea lion. Stevens is acrab biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Kodiak,Alaska. He started the list more than a decade ago.

STEVENS: "This list grew out of a class I was teaching. I wasteaching a class called 'Exploring Kodiak Tide Pools' for about tenyears here. I put together a list of common intertidal creatures thatstudents could expect to find in our tide pools. And that list grew overthe years to about 100 species."

At first, Stevens counted only species found in the tide pools, bays,and inlets around Kodiak Island. But as more and more scientistsbecame interested doing research along Alaska's coast, he expanded itto include just about any species found in Alaska's Southcentralwaters.

STEVENS: "My rule of thumb is if you can find it within a day's boatride from the town of Kodiak, then it's on my list. I've included a lot ofstuff from the Alaska Peninsula, across Shelikof Strait, because therewas a lot of work done there as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.These are just marine species. It doesn't include seabirds or animalsthat don't live underwater. It doesn't include things that live around theshoreline, insects and things like that. It's totally marine species."

The list doesn't include rather obscure invertebrates, such as marineworms, that live in the mud and sand of the seafloor. But the list doesinclude some 71 crab species, six of which Stevens only recentlydiscovered atop underwater mountains some 250 miles south ofKodiak. Stevens says there are so many marine species because


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http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/groundfish/speciesID.htm


Kodiak Island and the Gulf of Alaska offer an amazing variety ofhabitats.

STEVENS: "I think it has to do with the variety of habitats that areavailable. We're an open-ocean coast, so we have a lot of high-energybeaches, and that's a habitat that generates a lot of diversity. You cango down to the Inside Passage (in Southeast Alaska) and gotide-pooling there and you'll find much less diversity. Even if you getinto some of the sheltered bays around Kodiak, diversity dropsdramatically. But if you go out on some of the exposed coastlines wehave, you'll find a lot of diversity here, a lot more species. We haveshallow bays that are good nursery sites for a lot of species. And wehave open continental shelf very close to shore so it gets a lot ofnutrient input, and we have the very deep Aleutian Trench runningclose to shore, plus sea mounts and cold-water methane seeps. There'sjust a great variety of habitats."

Stevens says its important that people know about the treasure trove ofmarine life just beyond their doorstep so that they'll protect it for futuregenerations.

STEVENS: "We tend to think in terms of commercial value of thesethings. King crabs are important because you can catch them, you cansell them, you can make money on them, you can eat them. That's true.But these other lesser-known species are important for many reasons.They have important functions in the ecosystem. They have particularniches they fill, jobs that they do. If they were missing, that job mightnot get done."




Dr. Brad StevensNational Marine Fisheries Service301 Research CourtKodiak, Alaska 99615-1638Ph: 907-481-1726Email: [email protected]






The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/01.12.01species.html




Radio Script2001

__________________

New Crab Species Found in AlaskaWaters

__________________

INTRO: While some Alaska crab stocks are declining due tooverfishing, scientists report they've found six new crab species notpreviously known to exist in the state's waters. Arctic Science JourneysRadio's Doug Schneider has more.

STORY: The newly discovered crabs aren't likely to become dinnerfavorites anytime soon, since they live out of fishermen's reach some11,000 feet down in the North Pacific Ocean. Brad Stevens, a crabbiologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Kodiak,Alaska, found the crabs while exploring the Patton Seamount with thesubmersible ALVIN, some 250 miles south of Kodiak.

STEVENS: "We haven't found any new species per se. But I added afew species that had not been reported previously in Alaska waters.Some of these crabs we knew were there, like the golden king grab andthe scarlet king crab. But we also observed a few crabs we weren'texpecting to see, such as two species of a crab called paralomas. Theyare very much like king crabs and at times from the submersible wecould not distinguish them from king crabs. But when we capturedthem, it became obvious that they were different species. So we addedthose to the list."

The six new crabs bring to 71 the number of crab species known toinhabit the frigid subarctic waters off Alaska. The diversity of crabs isespecially interesting: everything from the thumbnail-size fuzzy crab,which is covered with delicate, fur-like hair, to the king crab, whichhas a huge body and legs three feet long. While exploring the seafloorin ALVIN, Stevens made another interesting discovery.

STEVENS: "The big surprise was finding a crab called Macroregoniamacrochira, which has no common name. But the Latin translation,literally, is large-clawed spider crab. So that's what I'm calling it. Nowthis crab was first described from the Emperor Seamounts north ofHawaii in 1979. It had not been observed prior to 1979 by anyone,


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anywhere. So we were very surprised to see it on Patton Seamount, at54 degrees latitude. It had never been seen that far north. And thereason is that it's a very deep animal. It doesn't exist shallower than1,000 meters. Really the only way to see it is with a submarine. And itturned out to be the most abundant crab on Patton Seamount, rangingfrom 1,000 meters to over 3,000 meters, virtually to 11,000 feet, whichis as deep as we dove."

The large-clawed spider crab has legs about a half-meter long. That'sbig, but not unusual. Tanner crabs and king crabs have long legs, too.But the legs on this crab are really, really thin.

STEVENS: "Take a king crab and put legs on it that are pencil-thin,and you get an idea of what this crab looks like."

Brad Stevens thinks the spider crab inhabits the seafloor throughoutthe North Pacific. Scientists rarely see it because it lives so deep.

STEVENS: "My thought on this animal is that it probably exists allacross the seafloor of the North Pacific. It probably walks, literally,across the ocean from Japan to the United States—not a single animalin its lifetime—but it has probably spread across the North Pacificbecause they don't seem to have any depth limitation at all."

Stevens will be among the 70 scientists gathering this month inAnchorage, Alaska, to discuss the latest research on crabs that live inthe deep, cold waters of the world. The Sea Grant/Lowell WakefieldFisheries Symposium is expected to draw researchers from as far awayas Norway, Australia, Canada, and Russia.

OUTRO: Our thanks this week go to the West Coast and PolarRegion's Undersea Research Center at the University of AlaskaFairbanks. This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of theAlaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'mDoug Schneider.



Dr. Brad StevensNational Marine Fisheries Service301 Research CourtKodiak, Alaska 99615-1638Ph: 907-481-1726Email: [email protected]

Arctic Science Journeys is a radio service highlighting science,culture, and the environment of the circumpolar north. Produced by




the Alaska Sea Grant College Program and the University of AlaskaFairbanks.


The URL for this page is http://www.uaf.edu/seagrant/NewsMedia/01ASJ/01.05.01newcrabs.html




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