An OMG Ocean Phenomena in AK

Well I guess if you live long enough on this ever-changing planet you will see it all.

Can you believe WINTER SEA TEMPS in JULY? I have been monitoring Sea Surface Temps for the past few weeks because quite a few halibut anglers, both chartered and private, are not finding the typical numbers of bigger fish in the catch this summer. Teens and Twenties are prevalent. A 60# would be a high five at this time.

A few days ago I reviewed the SST NOAA chart and things were still cool in the western Gulf of Alaska but not untypical for the cold temps we had last winter. Fast forward 3 days and look at this chart. There has been a huge upwelling of 43°F water off of Kodiak Island and starting to circulate up into Cook Inlet.

Why is that strange?  43°F is what the ocean waters are in the middle of WINTER up here in that area. We should be bumping past 50°F right now for lower Cook Inlet.

I'm wondering if these unusually cold water temps have slowed the movement of larger halibut into our Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay area. It will be interesting to follow this phenomena. On the far left is Bristol Bay showing a massive cold water lens too, right in the middle of their sockeye fishing season. Hmm?

It will be interesting to see how it plays out this summer.  Keep us posted on the "blob" and impact on fishing. 

NOAA provides SST anomaly analysis worldwide on the coastwatch website:  https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/jplMURSST41anom1day.graph?sstAnom%5B(2021-06-26T09:00:00Z)%5D%5B(47.0):(89.0)%5D%5B(-179.99):(-123.0)%5D&.draw=surface&.vars=longitude%7Clatitude%7CsstAnom&.colorBar=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C&.bgColor=0xffccccff

I prefer the jplMURSST41 datasets because of the high resolution.

All datasets: https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/index.html?page=1&itemsPerPage=1000

NOAA provides SST anomaly analysis worldwide on the coastwatch website:  https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/jplMURSST41anom1day.graph?sstAnom%5B(2021-06-26T09:00:00Z)%5D%5B(47.0):(89.0)%5D%5B(-179.99):(-123.0)%5D&.draw=surface&.vars=longitude%7Clatitude%7CsstAnom&.colorBar=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C&.bgColor=0xffccccff

I prefer the jplMURSST41 datasets because of the high resolution.

All datasets: https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/index.html?page=1&itemsPerPage=1000

Wow.  I need to learn how to use these sites.  I tried to zoom into Cook Inlet and "weird" stuff told me I don't have a clue!

NOAA provides SST anomaly analysis worldwide on the coastwatch website:  https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/jplMURSST41anom1day.graph?sstAnom%5B(2021-06-26T09:00:00Z)%5D%5B(47.0):(89.0)%5D%5B(-179.99):(-123.0)%5D&.draw=surface&.vars=longitude%7Clatitude%7CsstAnom&.colorBar=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C&.bgColor=0xffccccff

I prefer the jplMURSST41 datasets because of the high resolution.

All datasets: https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/index.html?page=1&itemsPerPage=1000

Wow.  I need to learn how to use these sites.  I tried to zoom into Cook Inlet and "weird" stuff told me I don't have a clue!

Anomaly:
https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/jplMURSST41anom1day.graph?sstAnom%5B(2021-06-26T09:00:00Z)%5D%5B(50.19):(68.51)%5D%5B(-160.3):(-141.98)%5D&.draw=surface&.vars=longitude%7Clatitude%7CsstAnom&.colorBar=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C&.bgColor=0xffccccff

Straight SST: https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/griddap/jplMURSST41.graph?analysed_sst%5B(2021-06-27T09:00:00Z)%5D%5B(47.79):(70.26)%5D%5B(-162.82):(-140.35)%5D&.draw=surface&.vars=longitude%7Clatitude%7Canalysed_sst&.colorBar=%7C%7C%7C%7C%7C&.bgColor=0xffccccff&.click=?187,156

I'm kinda partial to the ready-made maps since I tend to just follow the trends of change as a quick reference. Usually once summer arrives....about this time of the year....the SST data is not an issue impacting our fishing. But....Strange things going on this year. And it really wasn't a record-breaking cold winter by any means.

So this is what I reference. Love the contour map that shows Hawaii, West Coast and Alaska too.  Its a great reference for following the development of the El Niño progression that has occasionally decimated our salmon returns from impacts on food sources.

https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/ocean/sst/contour/

I'm kinda partial to the ready-made maps since I tend to just follow the trends of change as a quick reference. Usually once summer arrives....about this time of the year....the SST data is not an issue impacting our fishing. But....Strange things going on this year. And it really wasn't a record-breaking cold winter by any means.

So this is what I reference. Love the contour map that shows Hawaii, West Coast and Alaska too.  Its a great reference for following the development of the El Niño progression that has occasionally decimated our salmon returns from impacts on food sources.

https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/ocean/sst/contour/

Yeah those are good, they're the same dataset with a contour dataset on top. I download the NetCDF files and run edge detection on the raw data to plot SST fronts trying to identify good places to fish for albacore. When you're looking at these temperatures for salmon, one of the most critical factors for survival is when they first out migrate which is usually in the spring. You can also look at the stoplight chart OSU puts out every year (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/science-data/ocean-ecosystem-indicators-pacific-salmon-marine-survival-northern). Subtract 3 years for Chinook, 2 for Coho etc. to figure out the ocean conditions when the current year returns first hit the salt.

   almost as educational as the physics lesson on rod length, torque and torsion we had about a decade ago.

no disrespect guys, i'm learning...

  almost as educational as the physics lesson on rod length, torque and torsion we had about a decade ago.

no disrespect guys, i'm learning...

Nature has as many variables to decipher and interpret as the OR, WA, and AK sport fishing regulations booklets!   

I just received confirmation Tuesday from the Kodiak ADFG biologist that their area is showing the same unusual composition of anglers' halibut harvest as here in Cook Inlet and Kachemak Bay.
"Kodiak Anglers report catching an increased number of smaller halibut (<20 lbs.) this season too."

Looks like we got another one for the books related to climate change.