Cod — Pacific

"In the last 5 years, we have already started to see Pacific cod moving north into the Bering Sea in search of cooler waters. . . There are concerns about Pacific cod’s northward movement. The reliability of the Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska will be affected because of this shift. But it may also impact other fisheries. Pacific cod are voracious predators. They like to feed on tanner crab, a valuable Bering Sea fishery already facing a lot of stress from climate change-driven changes. If Pacific cod increase their presence in the Bering Sea, the crab fishery could face a new threat."

"Until recently, Pacific cod were rarely encountered in the northern Bering Sea. Fishery surveys in the 1970s reported “trace amounts” of cod there. . . Then in 2017, the summer survey recorded dramatically higher abundances in the north: a 900-fold increase since 2010. In the same year, southeastern Bering Sea abundances were down 37% from 2016. Strikingly, the increase in the north nearly matched the decrease in the southeastern Bering Sea. A 2018 survey revealed an even more remarkable shift: there were more cod in the northern than southeastern Bering Sea. . . “There is a strong indication that this is a result of changing ocean temperatures,” Spies said. “Specifically, the effect of climate warming on the Bering Sea cold pool.” The ‘cold pool’ is a body of water below 2 °C that is left on the eastern Bering Sea bottom after sea ice retreats. The cold pool has a strong influence on fish distributions. Walleye pollock, most flatfish, and Pacific cod avoid it. In recent years of warm temperatures and diminishing sea ice, the cold pool has shrunk. In 2018, for the first time in recorded history, it was virtually absent."

"Preliminary findings from a new laboratory study suggest that when ocean temperatures rise, lower fat prey leads to slower growth for juvenile Pacific cod. . . In 2017, data from the biennial Gulf of Alaska bottom trawl survey revealed startling statistics: Pacific cod biomass had dropped by 79 percent since 2013. This dramatic decline coincided with a period of anomalously warm water in the Gulf of Alaska during 2014-2016, now commonly known as “the Blob.” Scientists believe that the Blob may have increased juvenile cod mortality. This is the primary factor determining how many cod and other groundfish are produced in the Gulf of Alaska."

“The United States controls more ocean than any other country on earth. Our seafood-producing territory covers 2.8 billion acres, more than twice as much real estate as we have set aside for landfood. But in spite of our billions of acres of ocean, our 94,000 miles of coast, our 3.5 million miles of rivers, around 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad . . . While around 90 percent of the seafood Americans eat is foreign, a third of the seafood Americans catch is sold to foreigners . . . A half billion pounds of pollock, cod, and other fish-and-chips-type species . . . are, every year, being send abroad, more and more often to Asia.”

“In warmer years, sea ice melts earlier, when darkness still blankets much of the day. Late winter storms send algae deep undersea, where there isn’t enough light. Eventually, the sun warms the sea’s uppermost layer, in which algae bloom. Zooplankton prospers during warm years, consuming more algae, and less of the algal biomass sinks to the seafloor. The abundant zooplankton feeds small and medium-sized “forage fish,” which in turn leads to a boom in survival and reproduction of top predators, such as larger pollock, Pacific cod, and seabirds.”

“To protect the declining population of the western Steller sea lion, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will restrict commercial fishing for Atka mackerel and Pacific cod, the animal’s main source of food, off parts of the Alaska’s western Aleutian Islands . . . Scientists with the agency said they were acting because the adult populations in some areas of the western Aleutians had declined as much as 45 percent between 2000 and 20008, with a probable cause being a shortage of food... Commercial fisherman took about 2.6 billion pounds of fish from the Bering Sea fisheries last year, said Doug DeMaster, the science and research director at the agency’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. To protect the sea lion, the agency will completely ban fishing of mackerel and cod in one area and restrict it in other areas starting in January.”

“The southeastern Bering Sea is a model of generally sustainable fisheries management and, with the exception of some crustaceans, most exploited stocks are healthy. However, the community-wide responses to climate change that we have documented suggest the possibility of highly disruptive responses to continued warming of the Bering Sea . . . Some aspects of this change may be beneficial to commercial fisheries in the Bering Sea, such as possible increases in primary production and further increases in total biomass in the cold-pool area [where cod thrive]. However, considerable uncertainty over the nature of climate-forced ecological change in the Bering Sea remains, and ecological transitions can be economically and socially devastating to fishing communities, even when they result in the establishment of productive new fisheries.”

“State regulators from the Division of Commercial Fisheries have banned commercial fishing in the Bering Sea near the wreckage of the grounded freighter. More than 210,000 gallons is believed to have leaked so far. The order affects the Pacific cod, black rockfish and fisheries for other groundfish that would have opened Saturday.”

“There is a lot of talk these days about ecology. Nature is to be preserved, and the damage done by man is to be held to the minimum. The codfishing practiced on the sailing vessels operating in the Bering Sea far exceeded modern conservation efforts. The hook-and-line method of catching fish resulted in few other species being taken. In fact, it was normally a problem to catch enough fish of other species to provide the required amount of bait. Further, the hook and line did no damage to the bottom. Today, by contrast, the large trawlers towing their heavy nets with cables and otter doors literally plow up the bottom, causing considerable ecological damage.”

“In response to a petition to list 18 species of marine fish in Puget Sound under the Endangered Species Act SA, the National Marine Fisheries Service initiated status reviews of seven of these species including the Pacific Cod . . . Although the BRT (Biological Review Team) agreed that Pacific cod in the Georgia Basin scenario are not presently in danger of extinction, the BRT was nearly equally divided on the question of whether Pacific cod in this population segment are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future if present trends continue.”

“It is not surprising, therefore, that the available evidence from this spill indicates that the greatest damage was to the eggs and larvae of some species of fish. . . during 1991, data were gathered that would potentially help clarify the effects on adult fish exposed to oil as eggs or larvae . . . Several species of coastal and offshore fish, including pollock, halibut, sablefish, cod, yellowfin and flathead sole and rockfish, showed evidence of continuing exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons over a large geographic area.”

“In its glory days in the early 1980s, recreational fishermen caught as many as 32,800 true cod a year in the pass. Last year, the catch was estimated at 150. A report, under review by the Department [of Fisheries] for release within a month or two, will confirm what true-cod fanciers know already, that true-cod populations in the inner Sound have undergone an alarming crash . . . [Wayne Palsson, a marine fish biologist’s] report is expected to wag a finger at least three suspects: environmental changes; overfishing by both sports and commercial fishermen, and the possibility of excessive predation by an exploding population of harbor seals and sea lions.”

“Bernie Culbertson was preparing to fish cod when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. With oil in the water, fishing came to a standstill and life for he and other fishermen drastically changed. ‘The bottom fell out of the price of fish,’ he said. Pink salmon that sold for 80 cents per pound fell to 8 cents per pound. Consumers turned to farm fish or tuna out of fear of tainted salmon. His boat caught 2.5 million pound of pinks one season and lost money.”

“While there has been a fishery for Pacific cod in the northeast Pacific for over 100 years, until the late 1970s, interest in this stock was generally quite limited. However, due to the occurrence of several factors (i.e., institution of the U.S. fisheries conservation zone, the development of a Japanese longline fishery, influx of fishermen from failing crab and shrimp fisheries, and the large year classes of 1977 and 1980), there has been an increase of fishing pressure on the stocks.”