AOOS provided appetizers, and the evening offered valuable opportunities for coordination ahead of the upcoming field season. Sponsors included Marine Exchange of Alaska, JOA Surveys, and Tetra Tech Inc.

Presenters:

Sheyna Wisdom, AOOS Overview
wisdom@aoos.org

Joshua Jones, Partnership for Ocean Sounds Research and Monitoring
j8jones@ucsd.edu

Kay McMonigal, ACTION Convergence Research Cruise 2026
ktmcmonigal@alaska.edu

Seth Danielson, 2026 Field Activities
sldanielson@alaska.edu

Russ Hopcroft, NGA LTER Summary
rrhopcroft@alaska.edu

David Allen, IARPC Field Operations Community of Practice
david.allen@noaa.gov

Thomas Farrugia, IFCB Overview
farrugia@aoos.org

Heather Tabisola, EcoFOCI Spring Mooring Cruise
heather.tabisola@noaa.gov

Sue Moore, DBO-C30 July 2026
moore4@uw.edu

Irina Trukhanova, Pacific Walrus Research Expeditions 2023-2026
irina_trukhanova@fws.gov

Hannah Myers, Long-term killer whale monitoring program in Prince William Sound and Kenai Fjords
hannah.myers@alaska.edu

The post 2026 Alaska Marine Research Planning Night appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

By Alice Bailey

The morning after Ex-Typhoon Halong hit Western Alaska, I texted my friend Sarah Brown in Quinhagak to see if she was okay. 

“We were up ‘til five a.m. Water was around my house. Scary,” she said. “All the fish racks are gone at the boat harbor. Mine floated in one piece toward my niece’s house.”

The following Saturday, I got a Facebook message that read, “Hey Alice, we need volunteers if you’d like to come join us in beachcombing for prehistoric treasures.” It was from Rick Knecht, an archeologist who was on the ground in Quinhagak assessing the damage to a long-term archaeology project there. 

Like many Alaskans, I wished I could do more than donate to relief funds. When I got Rick’s message, I immediately booked a ticket and headed west.

Salmon Surveys

Sarah Brown checks her fish rack in 2023. The structure completely floated away when Ex-Typhoon Halong hit Quinhagak in 2025. Photo by Alice Bailey.

I first visited the Bering Sea community of Quinhagak in 2009 when I worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducting post-season subsistence fishing surveys throughout communities in the Kuskokwim River drainage.  

Asking about fish harvests is deeply personal—what’s in someone’s freezer and on their drying racks is the city equivalent of asking for a winter’s worth of Costco shopping lists. I was amazed at how accurately people, especially the women who cut the fish, recalled how many of the different species of salmon and whitefish, as well as blackfish, burbot, and pike, they needed to feed their families for a year. 

Even though I wasn’t enforcing anything, merely accounting for the communities’ food needs, not everyone was thrilled to see someone working for an agency. I especially appreciated those who invited me inside, and shared some dry fish and tea. And I cherish the time I spent with Elders. In those instances, the survey quickly went by the wayside and I just sat and listened to their stories—as one should do when an Elder speaks.

It took two months of traveling village to village to complete the surveys. I settled into the rhythm of each place, often collecting an entourage of kids and dogs. 

One frigid October day in Quinhagak, I went to the house of someone named Sarah Brown. She let me in. 

“Your hands are cold,” she said. I tried to play it off like I was fine, but there’s no fooling Sarah. 

“Where are you staying?” she asked.

In 2017, Sarah Brown held a small ulu that is now part of the Nunalleq museum collection. Photo courtesy of Nunalleq.

“The school,” I said.

“What are you eating for dinner?”

“Probably ramen.”

“You come back here to eat.” 

I tried to decline, not wanting to impose, but she insisted.

Sarah fed me every evening that week, and many other times in the last 16 years. She is a busy person, always doing whatever subsistence activity is in season—berry picking, gathering other plants from the tundra and beach, and preparing birds, fish, and whatever else her boys caught. We share an interest in cooking; it was easy to become friends. 

I returned the next year with the same job. I don’t know what she said in Yup’ik on the VHF radio, but the next thing I knew I was flying down the street on her 4-wheeler, visiting households on my list. Once I was done, we got to the real work of the day—gathering wild food and cooking dinner. 

Photography and Archaeology

In 2011, I began spending summers in Bethel as the Kuskokwim River Salmon Management Working Group coordinator. In the evenings, I explored Bethel with my medium-format film camera. 

The midsummer sun, best around 10:30 p.m., cast a light that transformed buildings and the trappings of everyday life into gorgeous sculptures. I captured these fleeting moments of light and shadow with film, then spent the winters back in Fairbanks making the images into etchings though a process called copperplate photogravure. 

I continued to visit Sarah, carrying camera equipment with me instead of my aluminum survey clipboard. She has always been patient with my picture taking. I have developed a sense of when it’s time to stop and start helping. 

During the summer of 2013, Sarah and I drove a 4-wheeler down the beach to a large hole in the tundra. A few years prior, the local village corporation reached out to Rick Knecht, who is an archeologist known for collaborating with Indigenous communities. Due to accelerating coastal erosion, artifacts from an ancient house site were being exposed, and the village wanted to learn more about them before they washed away.

Alice Bailey volunteering at the Nunalleq archeology site in Quinhagak in 2017.

The site was named Nunalleq—“the Old Village” in Yup’ik. Sarah and I walked up the wooden stairs to where a group of people were digging. She had been there before, as the community was very much part of the project. 

Sarah introduced me to Rick, who was examining a 400-year-old wood ulu handle. He also showed me woven grass, an ivory earring, numerous spears, and dozens of other objects they had dug up that day. I was surprised at how well the permafrost preserved them, but also how closely they mirrored modern Quinhagak designs. As an artist, I appreciated how everyday objects became art pieces through perfect craftsmanship and symbolism. 

I was shocked when Rick said I was welcome to help dig, especially since I had no archaeology training. He showed me how to gently scrape layers of dirt with a trowel and catalogue the artifacts. I was hooked. 

From then on, every visit to Sarah included volunteering at the dig site and later at the local museum that the village corporation, Qanirtuuq (Q-Corp), built to house the artifacts.

I very much appreciated Rick’s even-keel and down-to-earth personality, as well as his unwavering respect for the community.

Once I was digging and discovered an intact kayak paddle. My childlike curiosity, and affinity for kayaking, took over and I quickly extracted it and waved it in the air to show Rick.

“Look!” 

As soon as I uttered those words I realized that I was supposed to have left it “in situ” so it could be photographed and plotted. 

“Oh no! I’ll put it back,” I stammered. 

“It doesn’t quite work like that,” Rick laughed.

In October of 2025, Quinhagak Elder John Smith held a similar kayak paddle that was exposed by Ex-typhoon Halong. John told Rick and I that he recalled carving the same design with his grandfather, the blade approximately the width of his hand.

Nalaquq and AOOS

AOOS partnered with Nalaquq, LLC, which integrates Yup’ik knowledge to monitor local salmon runs. Photo courtesy of Nalaquq, LLC.

During a visit to Quinhagak in 2023, I learned how Q-Corp was creating its own science subsidiary, drawing on lessons from years of working with archaeologists like Rick. Named for the Yup’ik phrase meaning “we found it,” the mission of Nalaquq, LLC, is to ensure that research is a shared effort between Indigenous communities by blending local knowledge with technical expertise. 

At the time, I was nearly a year into my new role as Director of Outreach at the Alaska Ocean Observing System. AOOS was gathering information on the needs of coastal communities in preparation for a call for proposals for funding from the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. 

I had seen Sean Gleason training locals to use drones as part of remote sensing projects, so I asked Rick to introduce me. Sean, who works for Q-Corp and is faculty at Hampden-Sydney College, told me that they had been experimenting with using drones to observe salmon runs on local clearwater rivers. They wanted to empower locals with the skills to monitor these species since aerial surveys conducted by ADFG were not consistent. 

Sean had been mentoring Yup’ik teen Bryan Jones to program automatic flight paths, pilot aircraft, and produce high-resolution maps highlighting erosion. They needed funding to compensate local technical experts to continue collecting data on their lands. 

“When Bryan flies the drone, about 30 people gather around to watch,” Sean said. “It inspires other people and engages them in the research.” 

Sean encouraged me to speak with Q-Corp CEO Warren Jones to uncover other information needs. Warren was supposed to fly to Bethel that day, so I had 15 minutes to give my spiel while he drove the van from the dump to the office. I explained what AOOS is and does, and that we wanted to hear more about the community’s observing needs. 

Warren launched into a story about a boat with seven people that was lost in Kuskokwim Bay a few years prior. He leads Quinhagak’s search and rescue team, and said they didn’t find a trace of the boaters, which is something that still haunts the community. He said that better understanding of tides, waves, and currents could have aided the rescuers, and that they needed a low-tech, low-bandwidth way to access the data.

Patrick Jones deploys a Sofar Spotter buoy that will send wave data to the Backyard Buoys smartphone app. Photo by Sean Gleason.

AOOS ultimately funded two of their projects.

In the summer of 2024, Sean and his team completed the first phase of Nalaquq’s salmon monitoring project using drones. In August of that year, I traveled to Quinhagak with other AOOS staff. We discussed the salmon projects and enjoyed some freshly caught sockeye over a campfire on a gravel bar. 

Coincidentally, the whole search and rescue team was training in the “Red Building” where we were staying. We asked Warren if they might want to hear about the Backyard Buoys project, and before long we were talking with the whole group. They pointed out three places in Kuskokwim Bay commonly used by boaters for traveling and harvesting seals, salmon, and halibut.

In June, Nalaquq successfully deployed three yellow buoys the size of a basketball at these locations. All summer, people could check wave conditions from their phones. Warren and Patrick brought the buoys back to shore in September before the weather turned too dangerous for boating, and will redeploy them in the spring. 

After the Typhoon

Only a few tarps and some ancient house boards remain of the Nunalleq archeology site after Ex-Typhoon Halong. Photo by Alice Bailey.

I landed in Quinhagak around 3 p.m. on October 20, 2025, about a week after Ex-Typhoon Halong had ravaged the region. The town itself was relatively intact compared to communities like Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. The worst flooding occurred near the river, where many people—including Sarah—lost smokehouses and faced other storm damage. Floodwaters reached the inside of a handful of houses, and those residents were concerned about black mold. 

Rick met me at the plane and told me to gear up for the beach. Winter was closing in, with a few snowflakes in the air and a steady wind picking up. He was eager to search for any artifacts washed ashore before the ground froze and made them impossible to recover.

We drove the 4-wheeler to where the road ends at the Bering Sea. The first obvious sign of the storm was the exposed fiber optic cable. We turned to the south and I gasped when I saw the beach. 

I couldn’t believe how different it looked from a year ago—like the ocean had swallowed the land. In places, up to 60 feet were gone. What used to be solid tundra was now sand, torn-up chunks of peat, and ancient gray clay. Even navigating the four-wheeler over broken tundra was tough.

We drove a mile or so, stopping to scan the sand for artifacts—mostly pieces of wood—looking for anything “worked” or carved. In just a couple of hours, we found plenty, including a small wooden doll whose eyes hadn’t seen people in 500 years. Sarah arrived and immediately found a six-fingered hand, maybe from a mask. 

The next day Rick and I were out for seven hours in wind and snow—no one else was crazy enough to be out there. We worked our way to the old dig site, now mostly gone, which was heartbreaking to see. On the way back to town, we had a strong feeling that we needed to stop and look one more time. I looked down, and there in the sand was an incredible carved eye, possibly from a wolf figurine. 

We added these treasures to the hundreds recovered by Quinhagak residents in the days immediately after the storm. All were soaked in fresh water to remove the ocean’s salt, before the usual bath in Polyethylene glycol to keep the ancient wood from drying out and crumbling.

Holding a small mask in her hand, with half a snow goggle, spear shafts, and the base of a bowl resting on her lap—Yup’ik artifacts uncovered and displaced by Ex-Typhoon Halong. Photo by Alice Bailey.

As usual, I was mesmerized by the faces and designs carved centuries ago, and it was confounding that these objects were as intact as they were after being extracted from the earth by the remnants of a typhoon, carried out to sea, and deposited miles away. One mask, perhaps the best in the entire collection, was in perfect condition—and eerily looks like the young Jimmy Jones, who found it at low tide when he was looking for firewood.

So what next? Intense storms like Halong will likely become more frequent, said Rick Thoman, who is a climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “While every fall will not bring a Halong type storm to Kuskokwim Bay, with continued warming a stormier future is likely.”

As a visitor from Fairbanks, I marvel that wooden artifacts, buried beneath an ancient Yup’ik house burned in an attack around 1650, could lie undisturbed for centuries and then survive a wild ride on stormy seas before washing up miles down the beach. Seeing these messengers from the past, I don’t doubt that the people of Quinhagak can weather whatever comes their way.

The post A visit to Quinhagak after Ex-Typhoon Halong appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

“One of the goals of this program is to provide specialized training to Yukon River residents that will enable them to find and fill local job opportunities within the Yukon fisheries,” said Brian McKenna, YRDFA’s fisheries biologist funded by AOOS.

YRDFA’s Brian McKenna teaches electrofishing techniques near Eagle. Photo by Rachael Kangas.

McKenna was one of the workshop’s core instructors, guiding participants through a range of fisheries tools and field techniques. Set along the Yukon River and nearby Mission and American creeks, the camp introduced trainees to key skills used in fisheries research and environmental monitoring. The curriculum included CPR and first aid, water and boat safety, water quality sampling, fisheries gear deployment, eDNA collection, electrofishing, drone operation, and sonar technology. Classroom discussions were paired with extensive field time to give participants practical experience they can apply in their home communities.

Rachael Kangas, who is a project manager at YRDFA, organized the workshop. This year’s session was supported through collaboration among YRDFA, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Tanana Chiefs Conference, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

For communities along the Yukon River, the camp offers more than new certifications — it strengthens local capacity to monitor fish populations, apply for small research grants and pursue fisheries-related employment.

“The conservation of Yukon River salmon depends on the incorporation of local involvement, as well as local and traditional knowledge, into the research and management of the fishery,” McKenna said.

Participants in YRDFA’s technician training learn about the ADFG Eagle sonar project. Photo by Serena Alstrom.

Although YRDFA has offered technician training in the past, this was the first session in several years. Executive Director Serena Alstrom secured new grant funding to relaunch the program in 2025.

“YRDFA aims to offer training opportunities to Yukon River residents, particularly during periods of low salmon abundance. This effort seeks to employ local people in roles that leverage their extensive knowledge and experience,” Alstrom said. “This initiative represents a significant step toward career development and educational growth for people of the Yukon River, and we plan to develop more training programs in the future.”

The next fisheries technician training is scheduled for June 2026 in St. Mary’s.

Read a detailed account of the workshop by Alexis Isherwood, including contributions from YRDFA staff and representatives from partner organizations.

The post YRDFA Relaunches Fisheries Technician Training to Build Local Expertise appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

Since joining AOOS as AWLW Coordinator in 2025, Taylor Borgfeldt has led the continued growth of AWLW efforts across Alaska this year, including several initiatives highlighted below.

Photo of the Dillingham water level station and corresponding solar panel. Photo courtesy of JOA Surveys.

Dillingham site maintenance

In May, AOOS contracted JOA Surveys, LLC (JOA Surveys) for annual maintenance of the Dillingham water level station. Established in 2021 through a collaboration between the University of Alaska, Alaska Sea Grant, and the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, the station now fills a long-standing monitoring gap in the Bristol Bay region.

The Dillingham station utilizes two different technologies — a bubbler gauge and a radar gauge. The data for both sensors is viewable on the same station page by toggling the drop down menu above the time series plot. Dillingham is a challenging site for monitoring, with spring tides that sometimes leave the area dry and winter ice that can block radar measurements. To ensure reliable, long-term data and reduce the chance of gaps, JOA Surveys installed the gauges together on the seawall at the All Tides/City Dock. Nevertheless, AWLW advises that data collected from October through April be carefully verified to ensure accuracy.

During their May 2025 visit, the JOA Surveys team performed routine maintenance to ensure the instruments continue providing accurate data. This included checking the sensors’ software, inspecting equipment for wear or damage, managing cables, and making sure the site remains safe and secure. For the bubbler sensor, they fixed a small air leak, and for the radar sensor, they replaced an old cable and added a new splice to improve reliability and protection.

Hoonah and Petersburg

Hoonah community members along with AOOS staff and JOA Surveys staff following a community discussion of the newly installed instrument and the data that will be collected. Photo credit: Taylor Borgfeldt.

In October, Carol and Taylor traveled to Hoonah and Petersburg with JOA Surveys staff Julia Mickley and Peter Oswald to perform a site visit and do outreach for upcoming water level installations. AOOS coordinated meetings with community members to share information about the installation plans and how to access the data, provide resources available through AWLW and AOOS, and to have conversations about water level work and other potential AOOS observing activities in these communities. JOA Surveys installed the water level sensors that AOOS purchased, and the Hoonah station page and Petersburg station pages are now live.

Dashboards for Western Alaska

During the ex-Typhoon Halong storm surge, AWLW participated in the Typhoon Halong Post-Storm Data Collection group, providing information on installed assets, communicating with partners on the status of assets during the storm, and compiling recorded water levels.

Additionally, AWLW developed several data views within the AWLW portal to improve access to the relevant water level and webcam information available from the AOOS portals. The data views linked below, along with the additional views made to compare observed versus predicted water levels, were shared on social media, on the portal, and via direct communication with partners.

YK Delta Water Level and Webcams

Western Alaska Water Level and Webcams

CONTACT: Taylor Borgfeldt, borgfeldt@aoos.org

In response to Ex-Typhoon Halong, the AWLW created data dashboards for the YK Delta and Western Alaska. Screenshot courtesy of AOOS.

The post Alaska Water Level Watch Update appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

Patrick Jones deploys a Sofar Spotter buoy near Quinhagak. Photo by Sean Gleason.

In Alaska’s Kuskokwim Bay, three buoys deployed by Nalaquq, LLC were successfully retrieved this fall, marking the end of a highly productive firstdeployment season. The local search and rescue team selected three locations in the bay that are key subsistence fishing and hunting areas, where reliable wave data helps boaters make informed decisions. The buoys will be re-deployed next year, with educational activities planned for Quinhagak students to coincide with the start of the season.

All of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission’s 2025 buoys have also been retrieved. The final tally includes one buoy in Gambell, one in Savoonga, two in Point Hope, two in Wainwright, six in Utqiaġvik, and three in Kaktovik. During the AEWC meeting on October 20 in Anchorage, Sheyna and AEWC Buoy Coordinator Martin Edwardsen hosted a session to share plans for the 2026 deployment season.

Another program highlight this year was the launch of the “Friends of Backyard Buoys” feature, which allows Sofar Spotter wave buoys not funded through the Backyard Buoys program to be added to the app. More than 20 additional buoys were visible this season, providing ocean users with even more data to support safe boating.

AOOS has also expanded the program’s educational outreach. In partnership with the Pacific Islands Observing System (PacIOOS) and the Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems (NANOOS), AOOS developed a buoy-themed activity book for students. Available as a free download, the colorful booklet offers information and activities for all ages related to the Backyard Buoys program. The education team has also partnered with PocketLab on a wave activity using their sensors, which will be available as an iPad lesson in December 2025.

The post 2025 Backyard Buoy Season Wraps Up Across Alaska appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

ELOKA is a network of community-led initiatives dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing local observations and Indigenous Knowledge across the circumpolar North. Two AOOS-supported programs—the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub (AAOKH) and SIWO—joined community-led groups from Canada, Greenland, and Finland at this year’s gathering.

Lisa and Marcus found a polar bear in the city!

During the three-day meeting, participants found solidarity in their shared efforts to support community-led observing across the Arctic. While each country faces distinct challenges—including political and economic barriers and varying recognition of Indigenous Knowledge—attendees voiced a common vision for strengthening this work. A combination of panels, breakout discussions, and cultural activities helped participants connect, exchange solutions, and spark ideas for future collaboration.

Marcus Barr spoke on a panel titled Advancing Community-led Observing in a Changing Arctic Landscape, which explored effective practices for sharing and stewarding observations. Youth engagement emerged as a major theme, with lively conversations about creative ways to involve young people in language revitalization, observing projects, and other efforts that position them as both active contributors and future leaders.

Overall, the meeting offered a valuable opportunity to deepen relationships across the network and highlight the essential role of community-led programs in shaping our understanding of Arctic environments.

To learn more about ELOKA, visit their webpage: https://eloka.nsidc.org/eloka.

The post AOOS Programs Participate in ELOKA Annual Meeting in Victoria, BC appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

Following an Alexandrium bloom detected in the southeast Bering Sea in July and a multi-species die-off event observed on St. George Island in August, tests of seabird, marine mammal, shellfish, and fish samples revealed elevated levels of paralytic shellfish toxins.

Read the the full press release

The post Harmful Algal Bloom Confirmed on St. George Island appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

My name is Catherine Spangler and I’m a Natural Sciences major at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I started out as a psychology major my freshmen year, took a bird surveying internship on a whim, and haven’t looked back from the natural world since. So, what would the natural next step a year after changing my whole degree and career outlook be? If you said, ‘help study under researched sharks,’ you’d be correct.

This past summer I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Markus Horning at Wildlife Technology Frontiers with support from the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) on a Pacific Sleeper Shark research project. My time at the internship was split into two parts, the first in Resurrection Bay out of Seward and the second in Prince William Sound.

Catherine assists with the shark handoff between boats. Photo by Lizi Byrd.

In Resurrection Bay, I was first trained to drive both vessels we would be using over the summer. One was a typical 21-foot aluminum boat used to transport people and heavier gear and do the camera drops. The other was a 15-foot skiff that was used primarily for shark work out in the Sound. The boating certification required me to learn operation, safety information, and boat motoring such as approaches to buoys, docks, and boats. I also learned how to respond to overboard crew members in an emergency, navigate rocks and other hazards, and practice basic driving skills. I can report that the scariest part of learning boat maneuvering techniques is trying to pull in and out of the slip in the harbor. If you ever learn how to maneuver a boat around a harbor and into a slip, you will likely hear that you should only go as fast as you’re willing to hit something. Thus, there were many times I stayed in neutral to avoid speed all together.

After getting over a new fear of driving around boats in the harbor, we started our drop camera work to capture shark footage. We did a total of 8 drops and retrievals of our Deep Submersible Camera Trap (DSCT). The locations varied across several drop sites from Fourth of July Beach to the start of Thumb Cove. After dropping the camera safely on the sea floor, we left it there to sit for 24 hours and pulled it up the following morning. After we retrieved the DSCT (later also given the nickname of Cyclops, as it only has one camera like an eye), we downloaded the footage. 

Video analysis quickly became one of the most prominent of my responsibilities for the Resurrection Bay work. I watched nearly 200 hours of our red-light footage to see if there were Pacific Sleeper Sharks at the location. I also kept documentation of all other identifiable organisms like cod, halibut, skates, shrimp, etc. It soon became a relaxing routine: drop or retrieve the camera in the mornings, then after lunch start going through and analyzing the footage. There were sharks on 7 out of 8 deployments, and a couple of times there were multiple shark sightings during a single drop. 

Squirrel Cove cabin in Prince Wiliam Sound was home base for the project. Photo by Lizi Byrd.

Another project I was introduced to one afternoon was creating a digital form to keep records of our gear deployments and shark taggings that would happen out in Prince William Sound using the program JotForm’s. 

After weeks of building excitement, we finally got to start the adventure of attempting to tag  Pacific Sleeper Sharks in Prince William Sound. The 2 weeks I spent out there were with a team of five people, including Dr. Horning. Another was one of my other mentors, Dr. Amy Bishop, who is a professor at UAA working on the research project with Dr. Horning. 

Our home base for our field work was the Squirrel Cove Cabin, where we prepped supplies, tags, and played multiple rounds of Ecology (a fabulous game even if you aren’t science obsessed) in the evenings while our gear dried. Our days always started with coffee, a morning debrief, and a check-in for the work we planned on accomplishing that day. Then we geared up and left to various locations to drop our 4 longline sets to sit at the bottom of the ocean. We gave the sharks 4 hours to bite before checking them. This was the first chance my electronic forms had their time to shine–used them to record important data on the drops like the location, date, time, depth, bait info, and buoy number. Another important thing to note if you’re planning on sharking is the deployment of gummies when you set the line. Over the two weeks we found that lifesaver gummies had the highest success rate to catch sharks.

After the 4-hour soak times we would go to pull the lines in the same order we set them, and we all took turns in different roles of the hulling and coiling lines. Coiling lines, I quickly learned, is an art form in itself. Everyone does it differently, and personally I opted for more of an athletic stance, standing lower and over the bucket so I could tuck the line closer. This did have the drawback of occasionally getting rained on by the water from the upcoming line.

Attaching the bridle to prepare for a camera drop in Resurrection Bay. Photo by Lizi Byrd.

You know the feeling when you get to the top part of the rollercoaster and you’re looking down at the drop? Waiting for a shark on the line is kind of like that. When a shark did come up, everything started flying. We would set the audio recording as well as a timer and away we would go. Naturally, being pulled up on a line is going to be a stressful experience for the shark so we aimed to only have it up for a total of 45 minutes from the time we first spotted it on the line to the time of release. After moving the shark, people, and equipment over to the smaller skiff, we took measurements before tagging the sharks with devices. One of the tags we placed included a conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) tag and a SomniVision which, simply put, is a shark GoPro. It also included Mini PATS which allowed us to track more large-scale movements. The sensors are programmed to pop up from the animals and float up to the surface for retrieval after a set date. We were lucky to have a total of four sharks to work up and release with tags. I took tons of pictures. 

A personal highlight of mine from this experience was when I got to handle a shark for the first time. My job was to be the person who would receive the shark on the skiff to transfer over to the stretcher. I remember looking down at the shark and trying to hold it just right so everything could continue smoothly, and we could work it up. In the audio recording you can hear me just repeating, “Oh my god this is a shark, I have a shark,” over and over again. There’s just something about being so close to an animal that minutes ago was over 1,000 feet underwater, and seeing them in person after only seeing them over video footage for two months.

Despite wishing that I could have been out there longer, my time “sharking” has now come to end. I hope to use my new knowledge about research plans and proposals to do exploratory research of my own, potentially for a graduate degree or future career. While touching a shark was not on my bingo card for the year, I could not have  asked for anything better. I know this will be an experience I look back on fondly as I continue to build my career. I’m lucky to not have to say goodbye to the sharks completely, as I will continue working on the drop camera video data and hopefully present a poster at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium this winter. 

The post A Personal Account of My ANSEP Summer Sharking Internship appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

Map of planned cruise tracks of research vessels carrying an IFCB during the summer of 2025.

This summer, AOOS deployed its two Imaging FlowCytoBots (IFCBs) on a variety of research vessels as they conducted cruises in the waters of Alaska. These IFCBs are connected to the flow-through seawater system of the vessels, sample 5 mL of seawater in about 20 minutes, and take images of individual particles in the water. When the IFCB is connected to the shipboard internet, these images are uploaded in near-real time and can be examined to determine whether any harmful algal bloom (HAB) species were detected. The IFCBs have been deployed on four different vessels this summer, covering a large portion of the waters around Alaska.

The IFCB deployments allowed us to get snapshots of the phytoplankton community across large distances and throughout the summer. It has also given us many opportunities to look for HAB species, such as Alexandrium spp., which can produce a suite of toxins called paralytic shellfish toxins. During an Alexandrium bloom, zooplankton, fish, and filter-feeding invertebrates ingest toxic Alexandrium cells and concentrate the toxins in their tissues. These organisms are then eaten by other animals in the food web, and if toxic food items are ingested by humans in large enough quantities, it can lead to paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP).

Map of some of the locations of samples taken by the IFCB on the R/V Sikuliaq on August 2-3. The colors of the circles show the cell density (cells per liter) of Alexandrium cells in the samples. Densities over 1,000 cells per liter are considered high enough to potentially produce a toxic event.

So far, the IFCBs have detected two Alexandrium blooms in the Southeast Bering Sea: one on July 14, about 160 miles east of the Pribilof Islands, and another on August 2–3, right around St. Paul Island. In both cases, when these blooms were detected, an advisory was drafted and sent to key regional contacts and the State of Alaska Department of Health to make them aware of the situation. The goal is to minimize the likelihood and severity of PSP cases, and to provide a possible explanation for unusual mortality events of wildlife (as happened in 2024).

In addition, the IFCB data are uploaded to publicly available online dashboards and archived for future use. They provide a complete and quantitative assessment of the phytoplankton community, which can be of great interest for ecological and fisheries-related questions. 

Below are the links to the dashboards where you can visualize the data being collected:

• R/V Tiglax (June 13 – 22): https://habon-ifcb.whoi.edu/aoos_Tiglax0625
• R/V Norseman II (July 2 – 17): https://habon-ifcb.whoi.edu/aoos_Norseman0725
• R/V Sikuliaq (June 25 – ongoing): https://habon-ifcb.whoi.edu/aoos_Sikuliaq2025
• R/V Nanuq (July 24 – September 10): data not yet uploaded
• R/V Tiglax (September 15 – 25): upcoming

Finally, the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network hosted a contest to give names to the two AOOS IFCBs. The final voting results determined that the two IFCBs will be named C3P-Flow and Sir Scans-a-Lot. Stay tuned for the future adventures of C3P-Flow and Sir Scans-a-Lot!

For more information on IFCBs, please visit the Alaska Harmful Algal Bloom Network website. 

CONTACT: Thomas Farrugia, farrugia@aoos.org

Example of the dashboard showing one of the samples with elevated levels of Alexandrium near St Paul on August 3, 2025. The mosaic of images on the left shows 14 Alexandrium cells (large dark circles). The map on the right shows all the locations sampled by the IFCB on the R/V Sikuliaq June 25 – September 3, 2025.

The post AOOS IFCBs Monitor Harmful Algal Blooms Across Alaska appeared first on Alaska Ocean Observing System.

Full description of the project and related details

CONTACT: Carol Janzen, janzen@aoos.org

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