Tag: gulfofalaska

Military Confirms Plans for Gulf of Alaska Joint Training Exercise
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Military Confirms Plans for Gulf of Alaska Joint Training Exercise

U.S. Navy officials have decided to proceed with training in May in the Gulf of Alaska as part of a joint training exercise involving other U.S. military forces, but have not yet confirmed actual dates of operation. Historically, the exercises have occurred every two years since the 1990s. The Gulf of Alaska study area has been revised for 2023 to include the Western Maneuver Area (WMA) as well as the Temporary Maritime Activities Area (TMAA), to enable Navy personnel and units to practice more realistic, complex training scenarios in a safer, more efficient manner that would better prepare them to respond to real-world incidents. The record of decision noted that the Navy recognized that the size and shape of the previous TMAA of 42,146 square nautical miles no longer provided suffici...
Gulf of Alaska Expedition Finds Abundant Life on Surface, Sea Floor
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Gulf of Alaska Expedition Finds Abundant Life on Surface, Sea Floor

Researchers engaged in a Gulf of Alaska expedition in late May for ocean conservation organization Oceana say they found every marine site filled with life, from the surface to the seafloor Their initial report on the eight-day expedition exploring 23 sites in search of deep-sea corals and other seafloor habitat areas notes finding striking coral gardens in an area south of Kodiak Island in the open Gulf of Alaska, in an area still open to bottom trawling. Large groves of sea whips, a soft coral, were found in an area closed to bottom trawling to protect king crab. Sea whip groves provide vertical structure in soft sediments on the seafloor and are used by fish and invertebrates to hide from predators. The same area also had other organisms like sea pens, another form of coral th...