A Pacific Ocean Legacy Embracing Tradition: Protecting 4 Million Square Kilometers of Pacific Waters by 2016

Ancient Polynesians used the sun, stars, and ocean swells to navigate the Pacific, the largest ocean on Earth with nearly half the world's marine waters. From west to east, they explored and settled a significant portion of the Pacific. Known as the Polynesian Triangle, this enormous swath of ocean has Hawaii at its northern point, while Easter Island and New Zealand mark its eastern and western boundaries, respectively. Pacific Island communities remain deeply connected to the ocean and uniquely attuned to the need to protect it. Embracing this tradition, Global Ocean Legacy, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts and its partners, is collaborating with communities and governments across the Pacific to create a conservation legacy: the protection of 4 million square kilometers (1,544,400 square miles) of ocean waters by 2016 through the establishment of large, highly protected marine reserves. Around the world, Global Ocean Legacy works with local communities and indigenous peoples, fishermen, scientists, governments, and the business sector to honor and conserve critical ocean environments. Together, we are establishing the world's first generation of great marine parks

Abundance, condition, and diet of juvenile Pacific ocean perch (Sebastes alutus) in the Aleutian Islands

T he relative value of pelagic habitat for three size classes of juvenile Pacific ocean perch (Sebastes alutus) was investigated by comparing their abundance and condition in two areas of the Aleutian Islands. Diet, zooplankton biomass, and water column temperatures were examined as potential factors affecting observed differences. Juvenile Pacific ocean perch abundance and condition, and zooplankton biomass varied significantly between areas, whereas juvenile Pacific ocean perch diet varied only by size class. Observed differences in fish condition may have been due to the quantity or quality of pelagic prey items consumed. For the delineation of essential demersal fish habitat, important ecological features of the pelagic habitat must therefore be considered

Northwestern Pacific typhoon intensity controlled by changes in ocean temperatures.

Dominant climatic factors controlling the lifetime peak intensity of typhoons are determined from six decades of Pacific typhoon data. We find that upper ocean temperatures in the low-latitude northwestern Pacific (LLNWP) and sea surface temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific control the seasonal average lifetime peak intensity by setting the rate and duration of typhoon intensification, respectively. An anomalously strong LLNWP upper ocean warming has favored increased intensification rates and led to unprecedentedly high average typhoon intensity during the recent global warming hiatus period, despite a reduction in intensification duration tied to the central equatorial Pacific surface cooling. Continued LLNWP upper ocean warming as predicted under a moderate [that is, Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5] climate change scenario is expected to further increase the average typhoon intensity by an additional 14% by 2100

Physical drivers of the summer 2019 North Pacific marine heatwave.

Summer 2019 observations show a rapid resurgence of the Blob-like warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies that produced devastating marine impacts in the Northeast Pacific during winter 2013/2014. Unlike the original Blob, Blob 2.0 peaked in the summer, a season when little is known about the physical drivers of such events. We show that Blob 2.0 primarily results from a prolonged weakening of the North Pacific High-Pressure System. This reduces surface winds and decreases evaporative cooling and wind-driven upper ocean mixing. Warmer ocean conditions then reduce low-cloud fraction, reinforcing the marine heatwave through a positive low-cloud feedback. Using an atmospheric model forced with observed SSTs, we also find that remote SST forcing from the central equatorial and, surprisingly, the subtropical North Pacific Ocean contribute to the weakened North Pacific High. Our multi-faceted analysis sheds light on the physical drivers governing the intensity and longevity of summertime North Pacific marine heatwaves

The Ragfish, Icosteus aenigmaticus Lockington, 1880: A Synthesis of Historical and Recent Records From the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea

Knowledge of the distribution and biology of the ragfish, Icosteus aenigmaticus, an aberrant deepwater perciform of the North Pacific Ocean, has increased slowly since the first description of the species in the 1880’s which was based on specimens retrieved from a fish monger’s table in San Francisco, Calif. As a historically rare, and subjectively unattractive appearing noncommercial species, ichthyologists have only studied ragfish from specimens caught and donated by fishermen or by the general public. Since 1958, I have accumulated catch records of >825 ragfish. Specimens were primarily from commercial fishermen and research personnel trawling for bottom and demersal species on the continental shelves of the eastern North Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea, and the western Pacific Ocean, as well as from gillnet fisheries for Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus spp., in the north central Pacific Ocean. Available records came from four separate sources: 1) historical data based primarily on published and unpublished literature (1876–1990), 2) ragfish delivered fresh to Humboldt State University or records available from the California Department of Fish and Game of ragfish caught in northern California and southern Oregon bottom trawl fisheries (1950–99), 3) incidental catches of ragfish observed and recorded by scientific observers of the commercial fisheries of the eastern Pacific Ocean and catches in National Marine Fisheries Service trawl surveys studying these fisheries from 1976 to 1999, and 4) Japanese government research on nearshore fisheries of the northwestern Pacific Ocean (1950–99). Limited data on individual ragfish allowed mainly qualitative analysis, although some quantitative analysis could be made with ragfish data from northern California and southern Oregon. This paper includes a history of taxonomic and common names of the ragfish, types of fishing gear and other techniques recovering ragfish, a chronology of range extensions into the North Pacific and Bering Sea, reproductive biology of ragfish caught by trawl fisheries off northern California and southern Oregon, and topics dealing with early, juvenile, and adult life history, including age and growth, food habits, and ecology. Recommendations for future study are proposed, especially on the life history of juvenile ragfish (5–30 cm FL) which remains enigmatic

An atlas of 1975 GEOS-3 radar altimeter data for hurricane/tropical disturbance studies, volume 1

Geographic locations of 1975 hurricanes and other tropical disturbances were correlated with the closest approaching orbits of the GEOS-3 satellite and its radar altimeter. The disturbance locations and altimeter data were gathered for a seven-month period beginning with GEOS-3 launch in mid-April 1975. Areas of coverage were the Atlantic Ocean, the Carribean, the Gulf of Mexico, the west coast of the continental United States, and the central and western Pacific Ocean. Volume 1 contains disturbance coverage data for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central and Western Pacific coverage is documented in Volume II

Bathymetry of the Pacific plate and its implications for thermal evolution of lithosphere and mantle dynamics

A long-standing question in geodynamics is the cause of deviations of ocean depth or seafloor topography from the prediction of a cooling half-space model (HSC). Are the deviations caused entirely by mantle plumes or lithospheric reheating associated with sublithospheric small-scale convection or some other mechanisms? In this study we analyzed the age and geographical dependences of ocean depth for the Pacific plate, and we removed the effects of sediments, seamounts, and large igneous provinces (LIPs), using recently available data sets of high-resolution bathymetry, sediments, seamounts, and LIPs. We found that the removal of seamounts and LIPs results in nearly uniform standard deviations in ocean depth of ∼300 m for all ages. The ocean depth for the Pacific plate with seamounts, LIPs, the Hawaiian swell, and South Pacific super-swell excluded can be fit well with a HSC model till ∼80–85 Ma and a plate model for older seafloor, particularly, with the HSC-Plate depth-age relation recently developed by Hillier and Watts (2005) with an entirely different approach for the North Pacific Ocean. A similar ocean depth-age relation is also observed for the northern region of our study area with no major known mantle plumes. Residual topography with respect to Hillier and Watts' HSC-Plate model shows two distinct topographic highs: the Hawaiian swell and South Pacific super-swell. However, in this residual topography map, the Darwin Rise does not display anomalously high topography except the area with seamounts and LIPs. We also found that the topography estimated from the seismic model of the Pacific lithosphere of Ritzwoller et al. (2004) generally agrees with the observed topography, including the reduced topography at relatively old seafloor. Our analyses show that while mantle plumes may be important in producing the Hawaiian swell and South Pacific super-swell, they cannot be the only cause for the topographic deviations. Other mechanisms, particularly lithospheric reheating associated with “trapped” heat below old lithosphere (Huang and Zhong, 2005), play an essential role in causing the deviations in topography from the HSC model prediction

Pacific Hake, Merluccius productus, Autecology: A Timely Review

Pacific hake, Merluccius productus, the most abundant groundfish in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), is a species of both commercial significance, supporting a large international fishery, and ecological importance, connecting other species as both predator and prey. Coastal Pacific hake migrations are characterized by movements between northern summer feeding areas and southern winter spawning areas, with variations in annual abundance, distribution, and the extent of these movements associated with varying climate-ocean conditions. In general, warm (cool) years with enhanced (reduced) stratification and poleward (equatorward) transport are often related to good (poor) recruitment, increased (decreased) northward distribution, and reduced (enhanced) growth. However, the classic periodic pattern of annual migration and distribution may no longer be fully representative. Based on recent advances in the understanding of climate-ocean variability off the U.S. west coast, we hypothesize that the annual movements of Pacific hake are more responsive to climate-ocean variability than previously thought, and further, that changes observed in Pacific hake distributions may reflect long-term changes in climate-ocean conditions in the CCLME. Therefore, an updated model of these relations is key to effective monitoring and management of this stock, as well as to devising scenarios of future change in the CCLME as a result of climate variations. The current state of knowledge of the relationship between the Pacific hake and its environment is reviewed, highlighting emerging ideas compared to those of the past, and priorities for future research are suggested

Tracking ocean heat uptake during the surface warming hiatus.

Ocean heat uptake is observed to penetrate deep into the Atlantic and Southern Oceans during the recent hiatus of global warming. Here we show that the deep heat penetration in these two basins is not unique to the hiatus but is characteristic of anthropogenic warming and merely reflects the depth of the mean meridional overturning circulation in the basin. We find, however, that heat redistribution in the upper 350 m between the Pacific and Indian Oceans is closely tied to the surface warming hiatus. The Indian Ocean shows an anomalous warming below 50 m during hiatus events due to an enhanced heat transport by the Indonesian throughflow in response to the intensified trade winds in the equatorial Pacific. Thus, the Pacific and Indian Oceans are the key regions to track ocean heat uptake during the surface warming hiatus

PICES Press, Vol. 7, No. 2, July 1999

Improving PICES CO2 measurement quality The status of the Bering Sea: July - December 1998 The state of the eastern North Pacific since October 1998 The state of the western North Pacific in the second half of 1998 Paul Henry LeBlond Report on the ICES/SCOR Symposium on Ecosystem Effects of Fishing What is the carrying capacity of the North Pacific Ocean for salmonids? Southeast Bering Sea Carrying Capacity (SEBSCC) The Whole Earth System: The role of regional programs Sub-Arctic Gyre Experiment in the North Pacific Ocean (SAGE) The Alaska Predator Ecosystem Experiment (APEX): An integrated seabird and forage fish investigation sponsored by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council ICES and GOOS: A progress report Report on GOOS Living Marine Resource Panel Meetin