We have obtained samples from the Bristol Bay region from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) annual Bering Sea groundfish survey, and during late June and early July we were allowed to “ride along” on a vessel conducting research along the southern Alaska Peninsula, as part of a joint project (“EMAP”) conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.  From this latter vessel we obtained samples from Morzhovoi, Chignik and Alitak Bays.  Later in July we participated in a NMFS fish collection program that allowed us to obtain numerous age-1 and age-0 halibut from Chiniak Bay.  Further halibut samples were obtained from Kamishak and Kachemak Bays during Alaska Department of Fish and Game's shrimp surveys, and researchers from the University of North Carolina have been kind enough to provide us with fish captured at the Copper River Delta on the eastern edge Prince William Sound.  Additional fish were collected during an IPHC charter in southeast Alaska, at Shelikof Bay on the western coast of Kruzof Island during late September, and we also obtained fish from Hecate Strait, courtesy of the Department of Fish and Oceans, Canada.

Finally, we have fish from the Aleutian Islands (courtesy of the NMFS Aleutian groundfish survey), the Shumagin Islands, and northern Cook Inlet (courtesy of EMAP), but the usefulness of this latter group of sites is questionable.  We encountered some handling problems with the Aleutian fish, and sample sizes from the Shumagins and northern Cook Inlet are very small.

The F/V Ocean Cape, a 100' Bering Sea crabber specifically converted to trawling for research purposes, was used for the EMAP sampling conducted along the southern Alaska Peninsula and in Cook Inlet. Above: The Ocean Cape sits in Chignik Bay.  Below: Retrieving the trawl net, while fishing in Alitak Bay on the southern tip of Kodiak Island.  (Photos by Sue Saupe, CIRCAC.)

Biologists (from the left in front: Sue Saupe, Paul Olsen, Kirsten Rogers; myself astern with the shovel) sort through a rather large pile of kelp in Morzhovoi Bay, hunting for baby halibut.  This tow proved that we still  have a lot to learn about halibut early life history and habitat requirements.  The best available published information suggests that early juvenile halibut prefer sandy to slightly muddy bottom near the mouths of bays.  The kelp found in this tow were mostly attached to large pieces of cobble, and the site was near the head of  the Bay .... the tow also contained more age-1 halibut than found at any other station visited during the EMAP surveys.  (Photo by Allan Fukuyama, who was also sporting enough to help sort this mess.)

During summer and fall of 2002 we completed the process of removing the otoliths from the fish, determining individual fish ages, and preparing the structures for chemical analysis.  This was a relatively long process, since the way in which the fish and their otoliths are handled can influence the results of the subsequent chemical analyses.  It was important that all samples were treated identically from the time the fish were captured until their otoliths were removed and cleaned.  All fish were held in a freezer for a period of 11-12 weeks before otolith removal, and otoliths were extracted using clean techniques.  No metal implements could be used for the extractions because most of the trace elements we are attempting to detect are metals, and use of metal knives and tweezers can bias results.  Now that the otoliths are removed we are essentially ready to conduct the chemical analyses, but these cannot be completed until July or August of 2003.  All of the chemical analyses must be run together on the same mass spectrometer and we have no such instrument at IPHC.  We will be using a brand new state-of-the-art machine located at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, and the researchers at that institution anticipate that the machine will be running and calibrated by mid-summer.