2007-2009 Annual Report

The North Pacific Ocean is unlike anywhere else on Earth. Home to an incredible richness of marine life — thousands of known species with more still to be discovered — it makes a crucial contribution to global biodiversity.

The past 40 years have seen alarming and unexplained shifts in key North Pacific wildlife populations. In Alaska, harbor seal populations are greatly reduced, northern fur seals are depleted, and Steller sea lions are endangered in parts of their range. Some seabird breeding colonies have shown serious declines as well.

Dozens of scientists have been working collaboratively under the North Pacific Universities Marine Mammal Research Consortium to solve the mystery of these changes. The annual report summarizes their findings from the past two years. You can learn about some of the discoveries from the field and laboratory, as well as new insights from sea lions and fur seals trained to work with scientists. Many of the findings are ground-breaking, while others point to the complexity of the mysteries still to be solved.

Click to see report.

April 21, 2009