A Look Inside the Coastal Pelagic Species Survey
Get a behind-the-scenes look at life aboard the NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker during the Coastal Pelagic Species Survey.
West Coast coastal pelagic species play an important role in the California Current ecosystem. They’re food sources for marine mammals, sea birds, and larger fish, and they support commercial and recreational fisheries. The biomass and abundance estimates derived from this project are used in stock assessment models to support sustainable fisheries.
Southeast fisheries biologist Andy Ostrowski traveled to the West Coast to participate in the 2024 Coastal Pelagic Species Survey. Get an inside look at survey operations and some unique catches during the survey through Andy’s photos.
Baby barracudina! Even as small as this fish was, it was clear not to mess with it as the teeth were still very evident ...
Flatfish (of the genus Pleuronichthys) like these were non-targeted species. When caught, we put them in a bin with seaw...
Purple-striped jelly. Jellyfish species I’ve commonly encountered on the East Coast don’t get this big or have as many o...
Measuring a Pacific hake on the digital measuring board. The lengths are automatically uploaded to a database once the m...
The underbellies of plainfin midshipmen—fish related to toadfish. They are known for their rows of photophores, which ar...
A Pacific electric ray on its way to be released back overboard. We quickly noted the presence of larger non-target spec...
Sardines lined up for the removal of otoliths. At this point in the processing, lengths and weights have been recorded a...
Small octopus were common catches and always precious. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Andy Ostrowski
One of the many hours we spent sorting samples from each trawl. We used bins to separate out target species such as anch...
Two other unique non-target species—a sablefish (left) and a juvenile wolf eel (right)—that were briefly kept for proper...
Did anyone order an anchovy? Sights like this were really common! Somehow anchovies and other small fish would make thei...
Sampling supplies needed for working up trawl catches, including: prelabeled otolith tubes for efficient sampling; tissu...
A squid caught during the trawls. These were not too common, but interest was always high from all crew (both science an...
The sun rises after another successful night of trawling. Chief boatswain Brent Miller and a deckhand review the night i...
Hauling in the trawl for sampling. Sometimes salps— semi-transparent tunicates—and small fish fall out of the net during...
Deck crew picking up an acoustic lander that was deployed last year. The lander collects both passive and active acousti...
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