The underlying causes of mortality during critical life stages of fish are not well
understood, nor is it clear if these causes are similar for naturally versus artificially propagated (i.e.
hatchery) individuals. To assess the importance of selective mortality related to production type
(hatchery vs. naturally produced) and size at...
Large river plumes modify coastal environments and can impact production across multiple trophic levels. From 1999 to 2009, the
assemblages of forage fish, predator fish, and other pelagic nekton were monitored in coastal waters associated with the Columbia
River plume. Surveys were conducted at night to target vertically migrating species,...
The Northern California Current (NCC) is a seasonally productive and open ecosystem. It is home to both a diverse endemic community and to seasonally transient species. Productivity and food web structure vary seasonally, interannually, and decadally due to variability in coastal upwelling, climate-scale physical processes, and the migratory species entering...
Blooms of jellyfish around the world have been correlated with climatic variables related to environmental causes. Sizeable populations of large medusae, primarily Chrysaora fuscescens and Aequorea sp., appear annually in shelf waters of the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Previous research has shown that C. fuscescens is abundant seasonally in the inner...
During the summer of 1994, 1996, and 1997, we conducted hydrographic and plankton surveys of the upper 70 m in the nearshore, the continental shelf, and off shelf oceanic waters off Oregon, USA. Copepod densities and biomass were estimated along 4 transects from each cruise. The on shelf copepod biomass...
Dramatic changes in the physical and biological conditions off Washington and Oregon, USA, have occurred since 1998, including extreme El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool) years, high and low Columbia River flow years, a major intrusion of subarctic water, and a low oxygen event on the shelf. The occurrence...
Well-defined fronts develop at the seaward edge of riverine plumes where suspended materials and planktonic organisms are concentrated by convergent water flows. Riverine plume fronts have been hypothesized to be favorable fish habitats because they can lead to localized prey
aggregations. We examined the spatial distribution of juvenile Pacific salmonids...
Predation by piscivorous marine fishes has been hypothesized to be a primary source of marine
mortality for Pacific Northwest juvenile salmon. During the springs and summers of 1998–2004, we collected predator and prey fishes (forage and juvenile salmonids) at the surface at night off the mouth of the Columbia River....
Coastal Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) are known
to spawn in the southern California Bight from January
to March, migrate north during late spring and summer
to feed off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia,
and then move back to southern California in the fall.
Juvenile Pacific hake nursery areas have been...
A trophic model that simulates interactions between
a predatory fish (Pacific hake, Merluccius productus), forage
fish, and juvenile salmon off the Columbia River
was constructed to identify if trophic interactions could
account for marine mortality of Columbia River juvenile
salmon. The model estimates the number of juvenile
salmon that are...