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Seabirds, Fishing Vessels Supplied Data to Support Ocean Research During Pandemic

November 15, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic curtailed daily life for millions and idled much of NOAA Fisheries’ marine research. Scientists turned to unusual collaborators: seabirds in the isolated Farallon Islands off the California Coast near San Francisco.

With most NOAA ships at the dock, the researchers realized that their nearly 40-year time series of conditions off the California Coast was in jeopardy. However, they also realized that long-term surveys of seabird diets could help validate what little other data they had. The birds sampled the same anchovy, rockfish, and other forage fish populations that research vessels do in normal times. Crews from longtime NOAA collaborator Point Blue Conservation Science have logged what fish the birds were catching as they returned to the islands to feed their chicks.

Leveraging Help From Fishermen

Scientists at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center realized as the pandemic set in during early 2020 that their offshore surveys faced long odds. They contracted a commercial fishing vessel and trained fishermen on how to use their specialized research net and sample the catch. The fishermen then delivered those samples to the survey team. They analyzed the catch in open lab spaces wearing masks and other protective gear as required for social distancing during the pandemic. That turned out to be one of very few fisheries surveys on the West Coast in 2020.

Between pandemic limits and harsh weather, however, the vessel collected only about 25 percent of the data that researchers would typically get from such surveys. They also needed other data to help fill out and confirm the rest of the picture.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries

Government Shutdown Delays, Disrupts Environmental Studies

January 24, 2019 — The rainwater collection system is broken at the environmental research station on a remote, rocky Pacific island off the California coast. So is a crane used to hoist small boats in and out of the water. A two-year supply of diesel fuel for the power generators is almost gone.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel ordinarily would help with such problems. But they haven’t been around since the partial federal government shutdown began a month ago, forcing researchers with the nonprofit Point Blue Conservation Science to rely on volunteers to haul bottled water and 5-gallon (18-liter) jugs of diesel to the Farallon Islands National Refuge, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from San Francisco.

Still, the scientists are pressing on with their long-running study of elephant seals during the crucial winter breeding season. They tag and monitor the lumbering creatures, whose numbers are recovering after being hunted to near-extinction, and study how warming oceans could affect them.

“We’ve found some creative solutions, but things will get more strained the longer the shutdown is continued,” said Pete Warzybok, a marine ecologist with Point Blue.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

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