The Pacific Legacy, with her commercial fishing crew of eight and 12 scientists from Canada, Russia, and the United States, left Victoria harbour on the evening of March 11, 2020. As of March 20 they have completed 17 sets. There were no salmon in the two sets within the Canadian EEZ. In the next 15 sets we have approximately 440 salmon which exceeds the total salmon catch of 417 in our 2019 expedition. We are catching all species except for Chinook salmon but including one steelhead. It was a rough start with high winds, but the science crew recovered quickly and are in good spirits once they got their sea legs.
Until more of the survey area has been sampled, it is early to interpret results or variation in catch patterns. However, a first impression is that the catch pattern and abundances are different from last year. It is possible that the low catches last year were an index of the exceptionally poor coast wide returns of most species. If the stock specific catches this year relate to the returns this fall, it may show that these surveys can provide an early warning of return abundances. Our catches so far also contain excellent samples of chum, pink, coho and sockeye that will allow participants to test their hypotheses about the mechanisms regulating salmon production.
In addition to fishing, a CTD and plankton set has been conducted at each station and water samples for environmental DNA have been collected. The vessel and crew are scheduled to continue fishing the SW portion of the survey grid over the next few days. Following this they will be headed to Prince Rupert for fuel on March 24. Due to current conditions with the coronavirus, there will be no crew changes in Prince Rupert and the science team on board will continue for the duration of the expedition. Everyone is appreciative of the exceptional abilities of the crew of eight and the support of Brian Mose who is an owner of the vessel and can get anything done.
Tags: Brian Hunt, Evgeny Pakhomov, International Year of the Salmon, IOF students, Pelagic Ecosystems Lab, plankton, Research, salmon