Special Issue of Progress in Oceanography

Progress in Fisheries Oceanography of Subtropical Fronts
and Transition Zones in the North Pacific Ocean

Call for Papers

Submission Deadline – September 30, 2013

Guest Editors
Taro Ichii (Fisheries Research Agency, Japan),
Michael Seki (National Marine Fisheries Service, USA), and
Skip McKinnell (North Pacific Marine Science Organization)

Call - We seek papers that offer new or refined perspectives on the oceanography (physical, chemical, biological), zooplankton, fishes, invertebrates, marine birds and mammals and fisheries of blue water, open ocean ecosystems in the subtropical North Pacific and their transitions to coastal and subarctic regions. The special issue will combine invited reviews, contributed papers, and selected papers presented at the PICES-2012 Topic Session on the region that inspired this special issue.

Subtropical, oligotrophic oceanic gyres are the largest marine ecosystems in the world, yet in the current vernacular, are not considered Large Marine Ecosystems. They provide important habitat for many species of fish and squid, seabirds, and marine mammals that undergo extensive seasonal migrations between the Subtropical Fronts and summer feeding grounds in the Subarctic. Knowledge of the structure, variability and trends of the ecosystems has developed slowly because of their immense size, remote location, and cost of sampling. The last overview of the subtropical North Pacific was published 20 years ago in a bulletin of the now defunct International North Pacific Fisheries Commission (Ito et al. 1993). That research imperative arose from a need for governments to understand the effects of large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing on marine ecosystems at a time when little was known (Wetherall 1991). For a brief period from 1986-1992, significant resources were directed by Canada, Japan, and the United States to study the region. The United Nations moratorium in 1992 extinguished the fisheries and most of the research. Data collected during this period remain underutilized, so new contributions based on driftnet fishery era data are welcome.

Likewise, the passage of 20 years has seen remarkable technical developments for ocean observing and has seen major international initiatives such as WOCE, JGOFS, and Argo with their rich legacies of synoptic in situ data. Remote sensing technologies are providing views of the North Pacific that were unimaginable only a few decades ago. Papers that improve our understanding of patterns and processes from these data sets are encouraged.

Ito, J., Shaw, W., and Burgner, R.L. 1993. Symposium on biology, distribution, and stock assessment of species caught in the high seas driftnet fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean. Bull. INPFC 53(1-3).

Wetherall, J. 1991. Biology, Oceanography, and Fisheries of the North Pacific Transition Zone and Subarctic Frontal Zone. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 105.