HALIEUTIQUE MER ET LITTORAL

Weitkamp, a research fisheries biologist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Oregon, knew that something had been afoot in the northeast part of the Pacific Ocean since the fall of 2013, which was unusually sunny, warm and calm. A mass of warm water stretched from Mexico to Alaska and lingered through 2016, disrupting marine life. Tunicates weren’t the only creature affected; sea nettle jellyfish all but disappeared, while water jellyfish populations moved north to take their place, and young salmon starved to death out at sea, according to a report by Weitkamp and colleagues. Scientists dubbed this event “The Blob.”

This study is the first of several planned features on Alaska Fisheries Science Center research on Pacific cod in Alaska. Pacific cod are an important target of commercial fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.