Overview of Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
Key Research Topics
- Fishery interactions with protected species
- Marine mammal abundance and behavior
- Highly migratory species stock assessments for international and domestic fisheries management
- Coral reef ecosystems
- Recreational and other small boat fisheries
- Socioeconomic and cultural understanding of living marine resource use and appreciation
- Mitigating bycatch
- Health and disease in protected species
- Connectivity of resources between islands and within archipelagos
- Ecosystem considerations of exploited and protected resources
Science Center Organization
The Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Center has taken a leading role in marine research on ecosystems, both in the insular and pelagic environments. It is implementing a multidisciplinary research strategy including an ecosystem observation system and scientific analysis to support ecosystem approaches to management and restoration of living marine resources. It conducts a wide range of activities including resource surveys and stock assessments, Fishery Monitoring, economic and sociological studies, oceanographic research and monitoring, critical habitat evaluation, life history and ecology studies, and advanced oceanographic and ecosystem modeling and simulations.
The Coral Reef Ecosystem Division conducts multidisciplinary monitoring and research of coral reef ecosystems. Ecological assessments and monitoring are conducted throughout the Pacific Islands Region's area of jurisdiction to quantify and document spatial and temporal changes in the health of coral reef living resources due to natural processes or human activities. Habitat mapping and characterization are carried out to define and understand the dynamics of habitat-ecosystem-resource linkages; reef restoration is addressed through the assessment, monitoring, and removal of marine debris on coral reef ecosystems.
The Ecosystems and Oceanography Division conducts research to advance our understanding of the structure and dynamics of marine ecosystems in the Pacific Islands Region and the broader North Pacific. Research focuses on: 1) the role of living resources in the ecosystem and 2) how these resources might respond to change, both on the local scale ( e.g., predator or prey availability) and on broader time and space scales (e.g., ocean climate change). The Division's multidisciplinary projects allow for extensive collaborative research with other Center Divisions, agencies, and academia, and address ecosystem and environment impacts for a range of species, including the Hawaiian monk seal, several species of sea turtles, and pelagic highly migratory species including tunas, billfishes, and other incidentally harvested species.
The Fishery Biology and Stock Assessment Division conducts state-of-the art research related to the population biology, stock assessment, ecology, and life history of exploited resources and associated species (e.g., prey, bycatch, and protected species) in the central and western Pacific. This Division uses research to improve stock assessments and to advise resource management at both species and ecosystem levels while addressing mandates of the Magnuson-Stevens, Endangered Species, Marine Mammal Protection, and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts. Research programs emphasize population modeling, assessment survey cruises, experimental fishing, determination of vital rates and other life-history parameters, environmental physiology, distributional ecology, and mitigating fishery interactions with protected species.
The Fisheries Monitoring and Socioeconomics Division collects, validates, and processes fishery-dependent information (i.e., logbooks), issues quarterly and annual reports, and conducts socioeconomic research on federally managed fisheries in the Pacific Islands Region. Also residing in the Division is the core management team of the Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network (WPacFIN) that compiles fisheries data from territories of Guam and American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and State of Hawaii and also provides technical support to help the associated island fisheries agencies develop and implement appropriate data collection, processing, summarization, and report-generation systems.
The Protected Species Division conducts research supporting the recovery and maintenance of protected species (defined under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and international agreements) in the Pacific Islands Region- notably the Hawaiian monk seal and Pacific sea turtle populations. The Center is currently developing a research program to address growing needs for information about cetaceans. Current activities in this Division include studies using advanced technologies such as critter-cams and archival electronic tags, fatty acid and diet studies, post-hooking mortality research, sea turtle ecology and migration studies, stock assessments, and health and disease research.
Facilities and Vessels
The Center is headquartered in Honolulu on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. The Center maintains a Honolulu dockside salt-water research facility at Kewalo Basin and leases laboratory facilities at the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center in Aiea.
The NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette is the primary platform supporting the Center's fisheries research, coral reef surveys and other field activities.
