Technical Report 15

Preface:
The International Year of the Salmon (IYS; https://yearofthesalmon.org) is an international framework for collaborative outreach and research, and seeks to increase understanding and raise awareness of the challenges facing salmon and the measures to support their conservation and restoration against increasing environmental variability. The overarching theme of the IYS is “Salmon and People in a Changing World”, and the proposed research themes are (1) status of salmon; (2) salmon in a changing salmosphere; (3) new frontiers: (4) human dimension; and (5) information systems. These five research themes are integrated into the current NPAFC Science Plan (2016–2020), whose goal is to understand variations in Pacific salmon production in a changing climate (https://npafc.org/science-plan/). The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC), in a partnership with Salmon Ocean Ecology Meeting (SOEM), hosted the Second NPAFC-IYS Workshop on “Salmon Ocean Ecology in a Changing Climate” on May 18–20, 2019 at the Embassy Suite by Hilton Portland Downtown, Portland, OR, USA.

The workshop was attended by over 150 international salmon experts and scientists. Workshop participants presented 55 oral presentations and 24 posters addressing the following topics (and subthemes) related to the IYS research themes:

• • Current status of salmon and their environments (biological traits of key salmon populations; migration and distribution; growth and survival)
  • Salmon in changing ocean conditions (linkage between salmon production, climate and ocean changes; modeling the future for salmon)
  • New technologies/integrated information systems for salmon research and management (new technologies; integrated information and management systems)

Oral and poster presentations given at the workshop are available at https://npafc.org/workshoppresentations-2019. As a special session at the workshop, there was also a discussion of the preliminary results from the successful winter high seas survey in the Gulf of Alaska that occurred during February to March 2019.

The Workshop Organizing Committee consisted of Richard Brodeur (Vice-Chairperson; SOEM; Northwest Fishereis Science Center, NOAA, USA), Ed Farley, Jr. (Chairperson; Auke Bay Laboratories, Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute, NMFS, USA), Jim Irvine (Pacific Biological Station, DFO, Canada), Ju Kyoung Kim (Inland Life Resources Center, FIRA, Korea), Svetlana Naydenko (Pacific Branch of VNIRO (TINRO), Russia), Mark Saunders (Vice-Chairperson; International Year of the Salmon (IYS) North Pacific Steering Committee, Canada), Michael Schmidt (SOEM; Long Live the Kings, USA), Shigehiko Urawa (Vice-Chairperson; Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, FRA, Japan), Brian Wells (Vice-Chairperson; SOEM; Southwest Fisheries Science Center, NOAA, USA), and Jeongseok Park (NPAFC Secretariat, Canada).

On behalf of the Workshop Organizing Committee, we thank all presenters and participants for sharing information and addressing the topics related to the IYS research themes at the workshop and for
submitting materials for this volume.

Technical Report No. 15 is a compilation of extended abstracts submitted by workshop presenters. Material in this report has not been peer-reviewed and does not necessarily reflect the views of NPAFC member countries, or authors’ agencies. I thank Laura Tessier (2019 NPAFC Intern; IYS Coordinator now) for the help of editing the extended abstracts. Abstracts have been edited for clarity and publication purposes.

Jeongseok Park
Deputy Director, NPAFC