The North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s research priorities consist of a wide range of science-based needs and interests that support or improve the Council’s ability to provide stewardship over marine resources off Alaska and maintain sustainable fishing communities. Research topics are ranked through four priority categories: Critical ongoing monitoring, Urgent, Important (near term), and Strategic (future needs). These priority categories have specific definitions that emphasize correspondence of research to the Council’s time horizon of management concerns.
Critical Ongoing Monitoring
Research priorities designated as Critical Ongoing Monitoring (e.g., surveys) are of the highest priority level for the Council. These priorities create and maintain indispensable data that substantially contribute to our understanding and management of fish populations, fisheries, and the communities dependent upon those fisheries. Discontinuation or diminishment of the research that provides these data sets would leave a significant gap in the science needed to support sustainable and successful fisheries management in the North Pacific. The Council and its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) continue to provide the utmost support for these priorities.
NPFMC Top Twelve Research Priorities for 2024-2028
In addition, the Council has identified a Top Twelve list for 2024-2028, which identifies targeted research needs essential for compliance with federal requirements including the MSA National Standards. The list covers a wide range of topics, and is not ranked.
- Further research to reduce western Alaska salmon bycatch in Bering Sea groundfish fisheries (e.g. research on salmon and drivers of salmon distribution, as well as drivers of groundfish fishery behavior including avoidance of other PSC species).
- Quantify the magnitude of fishing gear (e.g., pelagic trawl vessels, derelict crab pots, and modified crab pots to reduce bycatch) impacts on crab and their associated benthic habitat and develop fishing gear innovations where needed.
- Evaluate direct marine mammal-fishery interactions (including feeding on discards and spatio-temporal trends in bycatch) and potential mitigation measures for marine mammal conservation.
- Examine the economic, social, and cultural effects of fisheries and fishery management policy on communities over time (including impacts from fishery policy changes and Tribal citizen and Tribal Nation reliance on, participation in, and impacts of federally managed fisheries).
- Develop actionable ecosystem indicators relevant to single-species stock assessments and ecosystem assessments that address climate change impacts to managed stocks
- Continue to acquire basic life history information with an emphasis on improved estimates of size/age at maturity to advance understanding of the mechanisms for how maturity changes over space and through time.
- Increased understanding of the spatial distribution, habitat requirements, and movement of crabs relative to life history events and fishing.
- Develop predictive tools and models that evaluate the impact of multiple projected climate scenarios on managed resources to inform management options related to ecosystem production and resilience and adaptation of fishing communities.
- Retrospective and meta- analysis regarding whether, how, when and why objectives and goals of fishery management plans are or are not achieved over time (e.g., Bmsy proxy evaluation).
- Norton Sound Red King Crab case study as a pilot study for the incorporation of Local Knowledge, Traditional Knowledge, and subsistence information in a relatively small scale fishery that is experiencing challenges related to both stock and climate change factors.
- Improve surveys in untrawlable habitat, particularly for rockfish, Atka mackerel, sculpins, and snow crab.
- Improve discard mortality rate estimates for scallops, crab, and groundfish stocks by gear types.
Council Process for Identifying Research Priorities
The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that regional fishery management councils, in conjunction with their SSC, develop 5-year research priorities for fisheries, fisheries interactions, habitats, and other areas of research that are necessary for management purposes. Since 2018, the Council has reviewed and approved 5-year research priorities for North Pacific fisheries on a triennial cycle. The Magnuson-Stevens Act identifies the intended audience for Council research priorities as the Secretary of Commerce and the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC), “for their consideration in developing research priorities and budgets” for Alaska. This information is also provided to research and funding entities including universities, research boards, and other management agencies operating in the region.
2023-2024 review
While the process has varied in previous years, Council research priorities were generally developed by the four stock assessment plan teams (BSAI/GOA Groundfish, BSAI Crab, and Scallop), reviewed and synthesized by the SSC, and ultimately finalized by the Council. Public input had been provided at each of these meetings, but for the most part, ideas for new research priorities originated from SSC or plan team members. Additionally, relying on the assessment plan teams did not provide a formal avenue for incorporating and balancing research priority suggestions from subject areas outside of the plan team’s expertise (e.g., habitat, or Arctic issues). In response to testimony in 2021, the SSC adjusted the process to identify a more transparent path for public onramps for identifying research priorities that should be included. The resulting process is described on the 2023 Research Priorities eAgenda, and illustrated in the figure below.
The initial phase of the 2023-2024 review process began with a request for information from the public about potential research priorities. Once received, these new submissions were evaluated by the Council Plan Teams, along with existing research priorities already included in the database from previous years. Each Plan Team submitted their review to the SSC, who provided an amalgamated recommendation to the Council for review and adoption.
Research Priority Database
Specific research topics are organized online through a publicly accessible database that can be queried for changes in research status and can also be downloaded completely for detailed information about all of the Council’s research needs.
Staff contact is Diana Evans 907-271-2809