Co-Convenors: Robert Suryan (USA), Rolf Ream (USA), William Sydeman (USA) and Yutaka Watanuki (Japan)

Invited Speaker:
Martin Renner (Tern Again Consulting, USA)

Marine birds and mammals (MBMs) are highly mobile, yet relatively easy to observe to define their spatial distributions. They consume large amounts of prey and are susceptible to changes in marine food web structure, productivity, and to a variety of anthropogenic impacts. Therefore, MBMs are highly visible sentinels of ecosystem health and its change. To incorporate these roles and characteristics of MBMs into ecosystem-based management and meet objectives of FUTURE, the PICES MBM Advisory Panel (AP-MBM) has proposed to focus on MBM spatial ecology and conservation from 2012-2014. Over the past several decades, a variety of research programs have collected observations of MBMs throughout the North Pacific using tracking studies and vessel-based surveys. Some of these data have been compiled into large databases, while others remain to be integrated in a more complete coverage of the PICES region. The workshop will devise a strategy to compile, integrate, and analyze these various data sets. Specifically, the workshop will determine the analytical approaches to integrate datasets, methods to spatially interpolate data, environmental data to include in spatial modeling, and spatial selection criteria to conduct regional analyses. Regional case studies will be used to test applications and resolve data integration issues. Workshop invitees and participants will include data holders and spatial analysis experts. Once data are compiled and integrated, the overall objectives will be to: (1) synthesize distribution data of MBMs and assess changes over time; (2) examine physical and biological factors that correspond to high use “hot spots”; (3) map and provide information on important ecological areas in the PICES regions. This workshop is an important first step to compiling and integrating these massive datasets. Results of the workshop and subsequent activities will be published as a PICES scientific report at the end of AP-MBM 3-year focus period.