The period of interest here (2009 into 2019) featured the following prominent events: a moderately strong El Niño 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 Niño that developed during summer 2015 and persisted into the spring of 2016. [...] The relatively large interannual fluctuations in bottom temperature on the eastern Bering Sea shelf affect the spatial and temporal distribution of groundfishes and the structure and ecology of the marine community. [...] The timing of phytoplankton and subsequent zooplankton blooms are also affected by the extent of sea ice and timing of its retreat which in turn can affect survival and recruitment in larval and juvenile fishes as well as the energy flow in the system. [...] The 2019 forecast is the highest forecast since 1993 due to the large proportion of young (age-4 and age-5 fish) observed in the commercial purse seine samples in 2018 and the resultant large recruitment estimates for 2017 and 2018 (Figure R13-27)). [...] The size of the grey points reflects the confidence weighting of each aerial survey estimate in the model based on weather, number of surveys, quality of surveys, and timing of surveys relative to the spawn (ranging from 0=no confidence to 1=perfect confidence).
- Pages
- 45
- Published in
- Canada
