The expedition is scheduled to take place from late February through late March 2019 aboard the Russian research vessel Professor Kaganovsky. Scientists from the five NPAFC countries, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States will be on board.
NPAFC officially launched its International Year of the Salmon in the North Pacific on Oct. 11, the commission said in a statement from its headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Gulf of Alaska expedition is one of the signature projects for International Year of the Salmon (IYS) outreach and research across the northern hemisphere.
The IYS is an initiative of the NPAFC and its North Atlantic partner, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, to establish a new hemispheric-scale partnership of government, indigenous peoples, academia, non-governmental organizations and industry to connect hundreds of organizations that have the capacity and desire to address scientific and social challenges facing salmon and people in an increasingly uncertain environment.
The partnership plans a call to action for outreach and research through 2022 to fill knowledge gaps and develop tools to equip and train the next generation of scientists and managers. The group also wants to raise awareness of decision makers to achieve conditions necessary for the future resilience of salmon and people in a rapidly changing world.
In addition to the Gulf of Alaska expedition, the IYS signature projects are to include a program to identify key factors affecting survival of salmon from freshwater to the high seas and back, the application of new technologies to unlock mysteries of salmon migration and survival, high-tech solutions to efficiently bring salmon communities together, and the design of modern management systems that includes indigenous peoples.