North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission

Technical Report 18

Table of Contents

Squid Abundances and Relevance, Gulf of Alaska Expeditions 2019 and 2020

Authors:
Svetlana S. Esenkulova, Michael A. Zuev, Christoph M. Deeg, and Oleg N. Katugin

Abstract Excerpt:
Squid is a major diet item of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in offshore waters, especially for coho (O. kisutch), Chinook (O. tshawytscha), and steelhead (O. mykiss) (Davis et al. 1998; Aydin 2000; Davis 2003; Kaeriyama et al. 2004). Despite their importance, relatively little is known about squid populations on the high seas, including their distribution, life cycle, population structure, spawning areas, and movement at different life stages relative to ocean currents. After a proposal to include winter surveys in salmon studies (Beamish 2012), winter expeditions took place in 2019 and 2020 in the Gulf of Alaska (GoA); the ultimate goal was to discover the fundamental mechanisms that regulate salmon in the North Pacific Ocean. One of the objectives was to study squid abundance, composition and condition in the upper epipelagic layer. Methodology and some preliminary results are described in Pakhomov et al. (2019) and Somov et al. (2020). During both winter expeditions squid was an important component in coho, Chinook, and steelhead diet (Fig. 1); this finding reinforced the need of squid studies in relation to salmon. Here we present a summary on squid abundance, distribution, and relevance based on 64 epi-pelagic (0–30 m) trawl catches, 60 Juday plankton nets (0–250 m) in 2019 and 52 epi-pelagic (0–20 m) trawl catches, 49 Juday plankton nets (0–200 m) in 2020. We also present preliminary results of squid detected in environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis.

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr18/53.57.

Citation

Esenkulova, S.S., M.A. Zuev, C.M. Deeg, and O.N. Katugin.  2022.  Squid abundances and relevance, Gulf of Alaska Expeditions 2019 and 2020.  N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Tech. Rep. 18: 53–57.  https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr18/53.57.