The Bering-Aleutian Salmon International Survey (BASIS)

The fisheries oceanography survey of the Bering Sea, known as BASIS, is made possible by the international treaty that led to the organization of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC). The NPAFC was established under the Convention for the Conservation of Anadromous Stocks in the North Pacific Ocean effective February 1993 and includes Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States. The NPAFC Convention Area forms the world’s largest marine conservation area for seven species of Pacific salmon, including chum (Oncorhynchus keta), coho (O. kisutch), pink (O. gorbuscha), sockeye (O. nerka), Chinook (O. tshawytscha), and cherry salmon (O. masou), and steelhead trout (O. mykiss). The NPAFC promotes the advancement of scientific knowledge on the salmon-bearing ecosystems of the North Pacific and the international cooperation in achieving conservation and sustainable management of Pacific salmon. Directed fishing for Pacific salmon and retention of Pacific salmon onboard vessels fishing for nonanadromous fish is prohibited within the Convention Area. Member nations patrol and enforce salmon conservation within the Convention Area. The large body of scientific evidence on growth and survival of salmon populations assembled by NPAFC member nations over the years has enabled development and testing of hypotheses about the effects of environmental change on living marine resources. For example, salmon abundance increased greatly following the 1976-77 ocean regime change in the North Pacific. However, as numbers of salmon increased in the two decades following the regime shift, salmon body size decreased, and ageat-maturity increased in most stocks in both North America and Asia. These observations supported the hypothesis that carrying capacity for salmon in the Convention Area may have been exceeded, which indicated the need for scientific investigation, as was subsequently reflected in the NPAFC Science Plan. Responding to the NPAFC call for carrying capacity research, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) directed the Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL) to form the Ocean Carrying Capacity Program (OCC). The OCC Program, established in 1994, is responsible for BASIS research in U.S. waters.