Several scientists are seeking to determine the abundance of plankton in the Gulf of Alaska and elsewhere along the shelf. Others are examining the distribution, abundance, diversity, and productivity of bottom-dwelling organisms off the Alaskan coast. Experiments have been undertaken to assess the effect of contaminants on fishes, pinnipeds, herring, roe, crabs, and marine organisms. Obviously the contaminant of chief interest and concern is petroleum. Basic studies of water conditions are also crucial to the contamination dangers.
Physical oceanography is still another area of research.
Surface currents, the transport of pollutants, marine climatology, atmospheric modification, and the seasonability and variability of streamflow into the ocean represent just a sampling of the oceanographic projects. Geologists are looking at seismic and volcanic hazards in the Aleutians and sedimentation and morphology along the entire shelf. The effect of offshore permafrost drilling on the environment is one major study, and the incidence of coastal erosion is another. Finally, scientists at the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute and other research units are focusing upon the characteristics of sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea, Bering Strait, and Bering Sea. Climatic effects on fast ice, mechanics of origin and pressure ridges, and the dynamics of near- shore ice occupy the attention of a number of scientists.