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Research |
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Oceanographic
and habitat conditions significantly affect, and can even govern,
the productivity of Northwest salmonids and groundfish. This research
program focuses on the effects of ocean variability, habitat and human
activities (including, in the case of groundfish, fishing patterns
and regulations) on distributions, health and marine survival of salmonids
and groundfish. Fishers have known for generations that specific habitat
features favor high abundances of unique marine resources and that
fish stocks respond clearly and sometimes suddenly to shifts or fluctuations
in climate or fishing patterns. Thus, it is critical that fishery
scientists and oceanographers determine which physical and biological
processes influence fish distributions, growth and survival, so that
when the ocean enters a different climate state, or fishing practices
change, or natural watershed conditions are restored, scientists are
able to state to what degree any factor is responsible for shifts
in growth and survival or possibly why certain species and stocks
are most affected.
Projects
in the research program are funded by NOAA’s Northwest
Fisheries Science Center, Alaska
Fisheries Science Center, Bonneville
Power Administration, and NSF. |
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This
multidisciplinary project seeks to quantify the effects of submarine
volcanic and hydrothermal activity on the ocean. Continuous acoustic
monitoring of spreading centers in the world’s oceans allows
investigators to detect and study the chemical, physical, geological
and biological effects of tectonic activity on the global ocean and
to follow free-ranging populations of large cetaceans.
The Vents Program research teams comprise federal employees, OSU/CIMRS researchers, and outside collaborators from other government agencies and several universities both in the U.S. and abroad. Research activity over the past year has focused on submarine volcanic systems, including mid-ocean ridge spreading centers such as the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the Washington-Oregon coast, and subduction zone systems such as the Mariana volcanic arc in the western Pacific. A
wide range of research tools are used for this work, including submarine
hydrophones to detect earthquake and volcanic activity, multi-beam
sonar systems for detailed mapping of seafloor bathymetry, instrument
packages deployed from surface ships for detecting and mapping water-column
hydrothermal plumes, and submersibles (both manned and robotic)
for direct observation and sampling of seafloor hot spring systems.
Funding for this research comes from NOAA
and its Ocean
Exploration Program, and from other agencies such as the National
Science Foundation. |
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Through
the use of autonomous moored hydrophones, researchers record whale
calls and determine the presence of different species in oceans throughout
the world. An automatic detection software program, Ishmael, developed
by CIMRS researcher, Dr. David Mellinger, is used to detect calls
and thus create databases of whale calls around the world. This program
has been used to detect calls of blue and minke whales from Atlantic
Ocean hydrophones, right and sperm whales from the Gulf of Alaska
hydrophones, and (in collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
of dolphins off California. Research
in bioacoustics is funded by a variety of government and industry
supporters, such as the North
Pacific Research Board, U.S.
Navy’s Naval Postgraduate School, NOAA’s NWFSC,
NEFSC,
SWFSC,
International
Association of Geophysical Contractors. |
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| Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources
Studies Phone: (541) 867-0181 |
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