The Climate Action Module was initiated by the Council in December 2018, and the Taskforce was formed after a solicitation for nominations in October 2019. The goal of this climate project is to evaluate the vulnerability of key species and fisheries to climate change, and to strengthen resilience in regional fisheries management. The Action Module will address the following objectives: (1) coordinate to synthesize results of various ongoing and completed climate change research projects; (2) evaluate the scope of impacts on priority species identified in initial studies; and (3) strategically re evaluate management strategies every 5-7 years; (4) include synthesis to evaluate climate-resilient management tools. Results will inform “climate ready” tactical and strategic management measures, which will help ensure a productive Bering Sea marine ecosystem and healthy fisheries for decades to come. For more information, please contact Diana Stram by email or at (907) 271-2806.
Climate Change Taskforce Workplan 2021-2025:
Upcoming Meetings:
The CCTF is scheduled to meet next in 2022, tentatively in January and March.
The CCTF is actively coordinating with the ongoing second phase of the ACLIM project, which is a modeling research effort focusing on development of alternative “climate-ready” management strategies to help decision makers understand management objective tradeoffs, and how to adapt to changing conditions so North Pacific marine resources remain sustainable and fisheries and communities are as resilient as possible. The goal of the CCTF is to summarize and communicate the most recent relevant information on climate change and Bering Sea fisheries to the Council. Crab stock declines will be one of the case studies used to provide context for the draft outline of the CCTF Climate Change Report and draft summary of available management tools (both drafts due in 2022). Towards this end, the following provides some initial thoughts for developing useful context crab management advice at upcoming meetings in 2022:
- BSAI Crab Plan Team, January 10-14, 2022: The rebuilding analysis and stock assessment for snow crab is being led by the AFSC. ACLIM can help provide important context for the rebuilding plan through facilitating discussions around climate and ecosystem projections for the Bering Sea, tradeoffs and considerations for alternative targets including multispecies or climate-informed targets, review of past ACLIM results pertaining to crab and climate change (which was focused on the southeastern BS and based on ACLIM1 work and papers) as well as summarize on-going evaluations for snow, RKC, and Tanner crab as part of ACLIM 2.0 and ACLIM leveraged collaborations. The lead author for the assessments is part of ACLIM and can help coordinate the effort (with support from ACLIM members) to synthesize these relevant pieces of information and provide them as context to the BSAI Crab Plan Team for the January discussions (as determined relevant) in the form of a presentation or summary document. We note multiple researchers involved in the snow crab rebuilding effort are also co-PIs and collaborators in ACLIM.
- CCTF January 2022: The CCTF will also provide a synthesis of information at the January CCTF meeting and additionally provide context for considerations in the snow crab rebuilding plan (hopefully building on the ACLIM summary and in coordination with that effort).
- CCTF March 2022: CCTF will hold a regular meeting where case studies such as snow, Tanner, and RKC may be discussed.
- ACLIM workshop, April 2022 (T): As crab (e.g., snow crab) are a focal species of ACLIM 2.0, management and climate scenario evaluations that include the species will be conducted during the project. ACLIM2.0 will host a workshop in coordination with the Council focused on climate-related adaptation scenarios which will include crab stock scenarios and which may help provide additional (informal) climate specific context for the 10 year rebuilding timeframe for snow crab (e.g., ACLIM could provide context such as considerations and tradeoffs around climate-informed targets, probability of future events such as “there is a X% chance of a heatwave in the next 10 years”, and context for recovery rates such as “most models suggest it takes x-y number of years to rebound after a climate shock”). More details about the workshop will be available in early 2022.
Reports:
- CCTF May 2021 Report
- CCTF January 2020 Report
Council Motions:
- Council June 2021 motion
- Council February 2021 motion
- Council January 2020 motion.
