Eric Brewer’s journey on the water began around 70 years before when his parents began fishing with his family’s fishing troller. At 73, Brewer still fishes regularly. However, he claims that things have changed drastically within the water in Southeast Alaska.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I was in the area, over on the last two weekends, on the Derby weigh station. I saw things that were really dystopian. The absence of birds, the absence of fishing,” Brewer said. “Those of us in the water are witnessing the changes. It’s quite creepy.”
Brewer began his own business in 1978, trawling for chinook salmon and coho throughout Southeast Alaska and catching hundreds of fish per day. However, today the marine environment appears less plentiful. Many varieties that are Southeast salmon have experienced record-low harvests over the last few years, and the destruction caused by “the Blob” — the Pacific summer heatwave that led to massive deaths of marine species continues to be felt.
Scientists predict a future that will see warming oceans and more heat waves. But, there’s no evidence to show how climate change is affecting Southeast fishing. There are two new citizen science initiatives from Alaska Sea Grant and the Alaska Trollers Association will help long-time fishermen such as Brewer be the ones to collect data on the way that the waters they rely upon are changing.
The ocean’s pulse
Tyler Hennon, an oceanographer at the University of Fairbanks, describes salinity and temperature as fundamental to the majority of research conducted in oceanography.
It’s a span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I sort of imagine it as the beating heart for the ocean.” Hennon said. “If you don’t know the temperature or salinity, you’re not aware of much about anything. .”
Understanding salinity and temperature is crucial because they influence the process of ocean mixing, which is a natural process where warm surface water mix with cold, nutrient-rich waters from deeper within the column of water. The process is responsible for the spring bloom of phytoplankton.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Which obviously are at the top in the chain that feeds us” Hennon said. “They trigger all the production that goes into the higher levels of trophic level and fishing and all the other things that we enjoy within Southeast Alaska .”
To determine what fish and other aquatic animals are consumingand when they’re not eating enough food -scientists require information about salinity and temperature. There are however significant data missing throughout Central Southeast Alaska, especially in the summertime.
To fill in the gap, the project of John Hennon is based on those who are already in the water- fishermen who take regular measurements at various depths near their fishing spots with electronic sensors placed on the lines they use for fishing.
The information they collect will be used as a base for oceanographers and biologists as the effects of climate change continue to affect our Gulf of Alaska. This is crucial in determining the conditions in the ocean constitute “normal,” as opposed to those that could be caused by climate changes.
Sitka fishermen Jim Moore, who serves on the Alaska Trollers Association board, believes that the data will assist fishermen in making sense of years of observations on the waters.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”People are talking about “Oh my goodness I’ve never seen this before. But I’ve fished for over 53 years. I first saw it to 1979.” Moore said. “The longer-term set of data is the most important.”
An old program for counting salmon that was re-launched
Moore is not new to conducting research from an troll boat. As a commercial troll fishing entrepreneur during the 1970s, Moore took part in a logbook project that analyzed the salmon population within the Gulf of Alaska.
The program was ended in the mid-90s. However, this season, Moore and a select group of Southeast fishing trollers relaunched that program using electronic. With a tablet-based logbook fishermen record the species and amount of salmon they’re taking in, the location they’re catching them, the weight of the fish as well as their stomach contents.
The logbook program of the past was a source of important management decisions for Pacific fish stocks such as the creation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty in 1985. Moore stated that he believes that reviving the program will provide managers of fisheries more information to help inform conservation of salmon in the face of climate change.
Management of Southeast salmon fisheries was at the center of a legal dispute this spring, following an federal judge ordered to halt the shut down of the Southeast Chinook fishing facility.. In the last week, a higher court ruled that the fishing can be kept open through the summer.
Moore stated that the new logbook software could give fishermen a better legal defense against any future lawsuits.
Its style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Fishermen are natural scientists,” Moore said. “And the trust they build between scientists and management, as well as the fishermen is a positive thing. We’re all working in tandem .”
Brewer who is piloting in the program to log log entries this year -He said working with scientists can be a long game for fishermen.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Trollers have been standing for a long time for salmon. We are determined to keep doing that,” Brewer said.
With the help of science, Southeast troll fishermen can enhance their roles as environmental stewards while creating a common understanding with researchers and wildlife managers.
