Glacier Bay Field Station Recent News

updated 11/06/2000

The field station is looking for volunteers or interns with GIS experience to help with efforts linking in GIS capability to the integrated information management system at Glacier Bay.  Interested parties please contact Philip N. Hooge.

The Alaska Science Center - Biological Science Office released via its web site version 2.5 of the Animal Movement Analyst Extension, a collection of over 50 functions for the analysis and modeling of animal movement data.  Version 2.5 now adds batch processing, dynamic and static interaction, multiple bootstrapping and Monte Carlo tools as well as many other functions. The motivation for the creation of this Animal Movement Program was the absence of animal movement software having complete integration into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We needed new software to analyze our sonic tagging data on halibut, Dungeness crab, and tanner crab in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, but the program has extremely wide application. It can be loaded as an extension to ArcView GIS under multiple operating system platforms (PC, Unix, and Mac OS).  Over 20,000 copies of the Animal Movement Program have been downloaded world wide from our web site for uses on marine invertebrate, fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Some interesting applications of this innovative tool include Yangtez finless porpoise in China, grizzly bears in Japan, Przewalski horses in Mongolia, desert tortoise at Joshua Tree National Park, queen conch in Florida, Golden Eagles on the Hopi Indian Reservation, reintroduced lions and cheetahs in South Africa, and sturgeon in Michigan.  This ArcView extension is available on the Internet at http://www.absc.usgs.gov/glba/gistools/index.hmt.  Philip N. Hooge, ASC - BSO Glacier Bay Field Station

The most recent copy of the Glacier Bay Bibliography is now available in several formats for downloading.
 

Underwater World of Glacier Bay Explored:  The December 1999 issue of AV Video magazine features Glacier Bay, Alaska, with photos and news showing USGS integrated biology and geology studies of the seafloor and sealife.  The USGS is developing underwater maps throughout Glacier Bay National Park as  well as investigating underwater ecological succession to assist in  resource management decisions, including those related to cruise ship  traffic and commercial fishing. A condensed version of the magazine  article is available on the web .   The magazine cover photo (showing the USGS "mapmobile") can be seen here.  The insert about close adventures with a sea lion can be found here.

12/15/99 USGS Participates in Glacier Bay Plan:  The USGS Alaska Science Center - Biological Science Office (ASC - BSO) is participating in the development of a comprehensive  Glacier Bay, Alaska, marine reserve and fisheries research program.  The stage for this opportunity was set as the result of two events:  the closure by the National Park Service (NPS) of large portions of Glacier Bay to commercial fishing, and the 7-year history of collection of pre-closure data by USGS scientists.  Marine reserves are increasingly attractive as a  fisheries management alternative, yet little research has occurred on the feasibility and efficacy of closing north temperate Pacific areas to  commercial fishing.  Furthermore, there is a need by the NPS and Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) for current information on stock status and life history characteristics to support sustainable yield of fisheries that were not closed.  The USGS ASC - BSO has cooperatively developed a  memorandum of agreement with the NPS and ADF&G that provides the basis for  future collaborative work.  The long-term benefits include improved management of continuing fisheries and a better understanding of how  closing certain North temperate marine areas to commercial fishing can benefit the marine ecosystem and lead to sustainability of the commercial fisheries remaining open.

USGS Assists NPS in Development of Intertidal Monitoring Protocols:  Gail  Irvine, USGS Alaska Science Center - Biological Science Office, has designed a broad-based intertidal monitoring scheme for Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.  This project uses an inferential design accomplished at 3 different levels (from aerial surveys to very detailed on-site sampling) to examine the ability to detect trends in the abundance of the predominant intertidal species within Glacier Bay. Preliminary results indicate a very  high probability (power) to detect change in the abundance of these species. Irvine recently presented this information at the Western Society  of Naturalists meeting in San Diego. (Gail Irvine, Anchorage, AK,  907-786-3653)
 

5/19/98  Studies in Glacier Bay to Shed Light on Benthic Habitat: The USGS in cooperation with the University of Alaska and the National Marine Fisheries Service will conduct over 40 submersible dives, using the National Undersea Research Program's Delta submersible, to examine possible depths at which Dungeness crab can seek refuge from sea otter predation.  The dives will take during May in Glacier Bay National Park.  Sea otters have expanded their feeding range, resulting in the decline of Dungeness crab populations.  Previous sampling has suggested that Dungeness crab may exist deeper than common sea otter dive depths.  These dives will allow researchers to evaluate the Delta submersible as a means of ground-truthing benthic habitat maps.  Glacier Bay's benthic marine habitats are currently being mapped by USGS using side scan imagery.  (Philip Hooge, Gustavus, AK, 907-697-2637)
 

  9/7/96  Getting a headstart on the NBS-USGS merger, members of the Glacier Bay Field Station, NBS Alaska Science Center, and members of the Western Marine and Coastal Geologic Team of the Geological Research Division, USGS, started a cooperative project mapping underwater features of Glacier Bay using a combination of side-scan sonar and sub-bottom acoustic profiling. The purpose was to augment and create a synthesis of ongoing studies of marine biology and marine geology conducted by both groups in Glacier Bay in order to develop models of species and physical habitat relationships. Initial results demonstrated that high-resolution (500kHz and 50m swath-width) side-scan sonar was able to distinguish many of the features previously identified by SCUBA work to be of biological importance, such as pits known to be the sites of molting Dungeness crab aggregations. Approximately 163km2 of ocean bottom were profiled during 8 days of ship time. Additional work still needs to occur to determine the feasibility of creating image mosaics and mapping habitat over large areas at these high resolutions. Both groups came away with the feeling that the unique opportunities for synthesis of biology and geology created by the merger would be extremely valuable.

8/20/96 Recently we had a good demonstration of halibut homing behavior. Over the last four years we have been accumulating data that indicate a high degree of within-year and between-year site fidelity especially among larger individuals. During our last long-lining trip, in June, we had sonically-tagged a small halibut. This individual was the smallest of the more than over 100 halibut we have surgically implanted with sonic tags. Our past data have indicated that smaller individuals move much more broadly and exhibit less site fidelity than larger (>100 cm length) individuals. After implanting the sonic tag, we translocated this halibut to the relatively enclosed area of the inner lagoon of Bartlett Cove in order to observe (using SCUBA) the healing process from the implant surgery. However, After a few days in the inner lagoon this individual disappeared. During the recent search for tagged halibut in Glacier Bay, the inner bay this individual was found to have returned to its original capture site! In returning it traveled a minimum of 10 km from the inner lagoon to where it was re-located on July 27, within 250 m of the original point of capture. It appears that even in small halibut homing ability can be well developed.

3/05/96 Tracking of Pacific halibut with internally implanted sonic tags has revealed that a substantial number of individuals remain within Glacier Bay throughout the winter and maintain fidelity to the same area for more than one year. All reproductive halibut were previously thought to travel in winter to spawning grounds off the outer coast. The existence of home ranges and multi-year site fidelity has not been detected in this species prior to these investigations. This study is one of several NBS studies which seek to understand the ecological effects of commercial fishing within Glacier Bay National Park. Contact Philip Hooge for further info.