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.