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Pollock and Cod research

05/06/09     Mike Mason

Some new research related to North Pacific Pollock and Pacific cod was unveiled recently at a science symposium in Anchorage.  Stewart Grant with the University of Alaska unveiled research detailing the response of North Pacific Pollock and Pacific cod to climate events over hundreds of thousands of years.  He noted that in the last 800-thousand years there has been tremendous variability in climate, temperature and sea levels.

Spot——0021—-Pollock 1——23-seconds——Q: “Bering Sea”

Grant pointed out some of the ways the North Pacific and Bering Sea have changed over the past several thousand years.

Spot——0022—-Pollock 2——25-seconds——Q: “plististine”

Grant said the Pollock and cod populations were greatly impacted by the massive glaciers that ranged along the North Pacific coastline.

Spot——0023—-Pollock 3——46-seconds——Q: “Pacific”

The new research included D-N-A samples of Pollock and pacific cod from locations across the North Pacific including from Puget Sound across to the Sea of Japan.  Grant and his fellow researchers were able to use the D-N-A samples along with computer modeling to come up with some estimated historic population figures for Pollock.

Spot——0024—-Pollock 4——34-seconds—-Q: “Bering Sea”

Grant says the data and computer modeling shows a much more complicated history for Pacific cod.

Spot——0025——Pollock 5——40-seconds—-Q: “Bering Sea”

Pacific cod is a bottom dweller and is currently found mainly along the continental self and upper slopes with a range around the rim of the North Pacific from the Yellow Sea to the Bering Strait and south down to an area off the coast of California. North Pacific Pollock range from the Bering Sea to central California in the eastern Pacific Ocean and in the western Pacific they are found around the Aleutian Islands, off Kamchatka, and in the Sea of Japan.