EK80 Water Column Sonar Data Collected During SH2202

This survey will be the U.S. contribution to the International Year of the Salmon’s (IYS’s) Pan Pacific Survey of high seas salmon habitats. The entire IYS Pan Pacific Survey will use 4 ships (including the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada) to sample Pacific salmon and their ecosystems across a grid of stations spanning the North Pacific Ocean from 50°E to 135°W. The overarching goal of this survey is to understand how increasingly extreme climate and associated physical environmental variability influence the abundance, distribution, growth, and survival of Pacific salmon in winter, and the ecosystem that supports salmon. To achieve this goal, we will measure or sample physical habitat characteristics, zooplankton, and fish across a grid of stations in the western Gulf of Alaska. The expected project period for this cruise is February 1, 2022, through March 7, 2022 on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada.