Regional Report for PICES Region: 12 - Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean 2009–2016

The period of interest here (2009 into 2016) featured the following prominent events: a moderately strong El Nino during the boreal winter of 2009-2010, La Nina conditions during the winter of 2010-11, and to a lesser extent during the winter of 2011-12, and an intense El Nino that developed during summer 2015 and persisted into the spring of 2016. [...] Filtered PTI values greater than the long-term mean are indicative of increased transport and/or a northerly shift in the Alaska Current, which transports warm water northward along the west coast of Canada and southeast Alaska from the south and consequently plays a major role in the Gulf of Alaska’s heat budget. [...] The year shown is the year at the end of the 90-day simulation. [...] In the Gulf of Alaska, the stability of the distribution indicates that each of the species occupies a fairly specific depth distribution. [...] Trends: Non-pup steller sea lion abundance in the western DPS in the GOA began to decline in the late-1970s, with the steepest decline occurring in the mid-to late-1980s, until it leveled out in 2001 and began to gradually increase an average of 3.47% per year (95%CI 2.64 – 4.34%; Merrick et al.