Young walleye pollock are like tiny ships with weak rudders. With limited ability to control their destiny, eggs and larvae pollock go with the flow in frigid ocean currents from coastal spawning areas to juvenile nursery grounds in the Gulf of Alaska. This model shows how and where larvae drift. Studying their movement helps us understand the resulting population numbers. 3A regional ocean circulation model is used to study the movement of walleye pollock eggs and larvae in the Gulf of Alaska relative to various physical factors which influence the survivability of the larvae.
Walleye pollock are part of a multi-million dollar fisheries industry in Alaska.
The results presented in the video show the animated field of ocean temperature between 140 and 180 meters over a period of one year. The seasonal variation of ice thickness is an output of an Arctic sea ice model with the same horizontal resolution as the ocean model described above. Today researchers are modeling these dynamic forces with powerful supercomputers to gain a greater understanding of the global climate.