Bering Sea

Bering Sea is the northward continuation of the Pacific Ocean, from which it is demarcated by the long chain of the Aleutian Islands. Bering Sea fishery contributes over half of the nation's fishery production, mostly walleye pollock, but the Bristol Bay sockeye salmon fishery is a major component also, as has been the snow crab fishery; Dutch Harbor is the top fishing port in the United States. The warm Japan Current has little influence on the Bering Sea, which has much ice; it can usually be traversed by ship only from June to October. This landmark decision included protection for areas in the northern Bering Sea that are critical feeding spots for endangered spectacled eiders, Pacific walrus, gray whales and other species. The Bering Sea contains the world's largest continental shelf-an elevated underwater plain-and the most productive fisheries in North America. Most of the hard corals in the Bering Sea are found on the slope at the edge of the shelf and in canyons, but an array of other seafloor habitats enrich this fertile ocean ecosystem. These are living animals that provide essential habitat for the abundant marine life in the Bering Sea. commercial fisheries in the Bering Sea are worth close to $1 billion per year. The Bering Sea consists of a large, deep basin in the southwest portion, where depths as great as 9900 ft (3000 m) are encountered. Ice is a prominent feature of the Bering Sea shelf during the cold months. Tides in the Bering Sea are semidiurnal, with a strong diurnal inequality typical of North Pacific tides. The general circulation of the Bering Sea is counterclockwise, with many small eddies superimposed on the large-scale pattern. The currents in the Bering Sea are generally a few centimeters per second except along the continental slope, the coast of Kamchatka, and in certain eddies, where somewhat higher values have been found. Snow crab are caught as far north as the Arctic Ocean, from Newfoundland to Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean, and across the Pacific Ocean, including the Sea of Japan, the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and even as far south as California.

Bering

With names like sea raspberry, sea onion, sea potato, and sea peach, the invertebrates of the Bering Sea sound pretty tasty. Oceana is identifying areas in the Bering Sea that contain dense aggregations of these important animals so they will be protected for the benefit of the ocean ecosystem. Estimates of historical population dynamics of marine mammals, seabirds, and commercially Important species of the Bering Sea, their interrelationships, their current status,and the factors contributing to their population fluctuations. The East Bering Sea Large Marine Ecosystem is bounded by the Bering strait on the north, by the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian island chain on the south, and by the Alaskan coast on the east. The Bering Sea has low levels of toxic contaminants, but these have been rising over the last 50 years due to increased human activities (mining, fishing, and oil exploration). 65,000 native Americans live on the shores of the East Bering Sea, and depend on its resources for their subsistence in food.

Ecosystem

The interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather make for a vigorous and productive ecosystem. The continued existence of these fisheries requires an intact, healthy and productive ecosystem. Global Warming is wreaking havoc on the Bering ecosystem In the last few decades, global warming, spurred on by world-wide fossil fuel emissions, has brought dramatic changes to the Bering region. An strong coordinated effort is necessary to detect and monitor changes in salmon and their ecosystem because stocks from all major salmon producing nations are distributed in the Bering Sea, intermingle in international waters, and migrate across the national economic zones. Large birds like the short tailed albatross and smaller birds such as the rock sandpiper play an important role in this delicate ecosystem. Loss of sea ice is changing the ecosystem, raising a new degree of uncertainty in terms of evaluating effects of fisheries.

Fishing

It is not uncommon for winds of 100 knots, 30 foot seas, and pack ice closing harbors and fishing grounds. There is evidence of overexploitation, excessive by-catch, and destructive fishing practices, from the rise of industrial fishing and factory trawler operations. In spite of its hazards, the sea contains important shipping routes for the Far East, and fishermen risk their lives there, in one of the most important commercial fishing grounds in the world. · The profits from Bering Sea fish go largely to huge fishing companies, which have left many fishing communities destitute. In the name of efficiency, ever-larger fishing conglomerates practice industrial fishing in the Bering. However, many of the fishing communities around the Bering have become economically depressed as the fishing industry has moved from small, family fishermen to huge companies that buy their fish from massive trawlers. In June the North Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the northern Bering Sea to bottom trawl fishing to protect “essential fish habitat.

Changes

The marine resources of the area are now being impacted by climate and other environmental changes. These changes have raised concerns about how living resources in the area have been and should be managed. Important hypotheses concerned with the growing impacts of pollution, over exploitation, and environmental changes on sustained biomass yields are under investigation. Recent changes in the species composition of Bering Sea Fishery Resources. Some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred. · Native ways of life have been devastated by ecological and climatic changes around the Bering. This has led to drastic changes in the water’s temperature. There are natural fluctuations in plant and animal populations, salinity, temperature, and current flow, but it's not obvious what role human activity plays in these changes. One of the more disturbing changes in the past 25 years has been a slackening of the summer storms responsible for that mixing — which could lead to an overall drop in the Bering Sea's productivity. Along with these dramatic oceanic changes, there have been large changes at the top predator levels.