Co-Convenors:
Gerard DiNardo (USA)
Suam Kim (Korea)
Sei-Ichi Saitoh (Japan)
Cisco Werner (USA)
Invited Speaker:
Patrick Lehodey (Space Oceanography Division, CLS, France)
The goal of the workshop is to define a scientific framework to assess the dynamics of pelagic fish under climate/ environmental variability. We will discuss the overlapping PICES and ISC science missions and outline a Science Plan for a multi-year collaborative effort. Climate variability affects pelagic fish distributions and migration, and ultimately pelagic fisheries, the level of impact depending on the persistence, direction, and magnitude of the variability. Survival and growth rates of pelagic fish are linked to oceanographic conditions, and changes to these conditions can have dramatic impacts on the composition of species assemblages within pelagic ecosystems, as well as the persistence and magnitude of individual pelagic fish populations. Understanding the links between environment and pelagic fish behavior, growth, recruitment, and production are paramount to understanding the impacts of climate variability. Pelagic fishes occupy surface waters of the North Pacific Ocean, from coastal shelf to open ocean ecosystems. Many of these species undertake large-scale feeding, spawning, and ontogenetic migrations linked to seasonal changes in water masses. For example, Pacific bluefin tuna use waters off Japan as a nursery habitat, undertaking an ontogenetic movement eastward to waters off North America where they remain as subadults for 2-3 years. Additionally, many pelagic species have environmental thresholds and preferences which limit the spatial distribution of a species. The most important environmental factors include oxygen, salinity and temperature, and because these factors generally exhibit persistent spatiotemporal patterns, the general distribution of pelagic fishes is known. Knowledge of these relationships allows for the incorporation of climate change into stock assessments, which forms the basis for fisheries management.
