In 2015, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development recognizing the peril humanity faces. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO announced the launch of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development (hereafter, the Ocean-Decade) to support the 2030 Agenda for 2021-2030. The first batch of endorsed programs and contributions for the Ocean-Decade has been set in place in 2021 and will be followed by more Decade actions. It is about time to evaluate whether we have a good arsenal in line with the Ocean-Decade to transform ecosystems in the North Pacific. While some areas of scientific knowledge are advancing well, certain aspects need to be enhanced to fulfill the transformative nature of the Ocean-Decade. For example, more extensive involvement of stakeholders and early career researchers/professionals. Also, inclusive action networks formed by all the stakeholders involved are crucial in harnessing the ocean knowledge to transform the ocean. In this meeting, we will review the major efforts in the PICES regions to meet with the Ocean-Decade objectives and challenges and steer the future directions by identifying gaps and setting the priorities.

Marine Ecosystem Services provide a conceptual framework to understand and communicate the value our coastal and marine ecosystems have from ecological, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives. All species and habitats provide ecosystem functions and produce ‘services’. This session seeks to bring together natural scientists (ecologists, biologists, oceanographers, etc.) studying species and habitats that provide these services with the social scientists (economists, anthropologists, sociologists, etc.), policy makers, managers, and others that use the concept of MES to affect decision making. The session will include discussions on ecological, economic, and socio-cultural metrics to identify synergies between them. An objective of this session will be to help bridge the gaps in communication and understanding about ecosystem services between natural and social scientists in PICES nations and to illustrate the range of applications studying marine ecosystem services.

Exploratory projects in applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to marine science issues have been advancing rapidly in recent years, and these projects so far have been limited in scope and not been made scalable. This session brings together the scientists, developers, and leaders who are interested in advancing scalable AI applications. We will discuss the knowledge gaps, priorities, infrastructure requirements, feasibilities in realizing scalable AI in marine science. More importantly, we will welcome innovative, future oriented and actionable solutions. We invite a wide range of submissions, including but not limited to real-time and delayed-mode QC and anomaly detection using AI and data infrastructure that allows scalable operations. Other information: This session is a contribution to 2 of the PICES Strategic goals. Goal 4: Advance methods and tools. Machine learning and AI are new tools with enormous potential that should be explored in the PICES context. Goal 6: Engage with early career scientists to sustain a vibrant and cutting edge PICES scientific community. Big data and AI represent the cutting edge of the process to convert data into information in the modern world, therefore encouraging the development and application of these new tools is one way to attract early career scientists to PICES.

Traditional plankton monitoring programs often involve field sampling and sample processing techniques that are high cost, time consuming, and labor intensive. These limitations restrict the potential to use planktonic communities as indicators of environmental change. However, recent developments in plankton imaging systems and machine algorithms provide a unique opportunity to move plankton monitoring programs from net-based techniques to either fully imaging-based or a hybrid of net-based and imaging-based plankton monitoring approaches. It is important to understand the strength and limitations of imaging systems and a need to develop broadly applicable taxonomic identification algorithms. This session focuses on plankton imaging systems and image processing methods. Our session seeks contributions that provide examples of imaging systems are applied to plankton monitoring and discuss how captured images are processed using automated recognition and enumeration methods. Our goal is to share state-of-the-art science that serves to facilitate the deployment and use of imaging systems for plankton monitoring worldwide.

Small pelagic fish species are a key component of North Pacific ecosystems. They are a prey species for large bodied fishes, marine mammals and birds and an important predator of zooplankton and phytoplankton production. In addition, there are substantial commercial fisheries that exploit small pelagic species. Small pelagics are often short-lived and respond strongly to environmental changes. This makes these species particularly difficult to manage, as changes in productivity caused by environmental changes can precede management responses. This also creates an opportunity, in that environmental changes can have impacts on the species distribution and abundance over shortened time scales that are relatively easily detected. For example, Pacific Saury is a species with a 2-year life cycle, with distribution and abundance known to be strongly correlated to temperature and ocean conditions. Abundance and productivity are likely to change over very short time scales. The species also supports a large multi-national commercial fishery in international waters. However, the linkages to environmental conditions are not parameterized in the existing stock assessment or management strategy. This proposed session will focus on methods to incorporate the environment into stock assessment and management of small pelagics. We will solicit contributions under three broad categories, 1) contributions that hypothesize and apply mechanistic approaches to relating growth, recruitment and productivity to environmental changes in the North Pacific Ocean, 2) methods for monitoring and predicting ocean conditions that have implications for population status and can assist in projecting future changes in the abundance of small pelagic fishes and 3) examination of environmental relationships that can contribute to understanding the implications for management measures such as biological reference points and harvest control rules.

Non-indigenous species (NIS) cause ecological and/or economic harm and are a threat to biodiversity. The spread of aquatic NIS has increased in the last decade due to globalization and other related human activities and preventing all introductions is not possible. Thus, early detection is the most valuable cost-effective control and eradication option, yet many species are difficult to detect using traditional survey techniques, especially over large spatial areas. The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a new and rapidly growing tool to detect, monitor, and quantify species for biodiversity and conservation management is of considerable interest. In comparison to traditional methods, eDNA sampling is more sensitive, less harmful to the environment, cost-effective, safer for both species and field staff, and more targeted for identifying species of interest. Therefore, eDNA is a promising tool for early detection of NIS. However, the effectiveness for this technique across many NIS taxonomic groups and habitat types is unexplored and could have important management implications. This topic session will explore the use of eDNA to detect and assess NIS status in the North Pacific. The goal is to evaluate the landscape of how eDNA monitoring is being applied in the NIS community globally and to share information relevant to management and policy. Since different environments and species will require different sampling standards, there are potential opportunities for lessons learned and shared methodologies for data collection, analyses, and comparison.

The completion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Reports in 2021 and 2022 provides a global update on past, current and future implications of climate change on marine ecosystems. In preparation for, and in response to, these global assessments of climate impacts and adaptation, scientists throughout the northern hemisphere have utilized coupled models to assess the implications of changing climate on marine ecosystems and fishery-dependent communities. This session seeks contributions on innovative new methods for ocean model simulations, improvements in seasonal to decadal forecasting skill, biogeochemical model enhancements, impacts and risk assessments, and evaluations of fishery adaptation strategies to short-term and long-term climate change within contrasting ocean management systems. The session will provide a forum for the exchange of emerging science, advanced methods and synthesis of climate change impacts and adaptation approaches throughout the northern hemisphere.

Zooplankton play a key role in the transfer of energy from primary producers to higher trophic levels and are thus highly relevant to fisheries dynamics and to the overall function of ocean ecosystems. Despite their key role, routine estimates of zooplankton production remain rare, resulting in a knowledge gap with respect to how variations in zooplankton may impact the growth and survival of larval and juvenile fishes. Further, the current development of ecosystem based management of fisheries may benefit from the incorporation of zooplankton data. Built upon the recent effort of PICES WG37, the main goal of this session is to bring diverse researchers together on topics ranging from zooplankton to fisheries management in order to better understand the knowledge gap of the critical link between secondary producers and fisheries dynamics in light of climate change. Studies linking zooplankton productivity to fish larvae and recruitment dynamics are especially encouraged. Contributions from experimental, observational, and modeling approaches are welcomed.

The responses of Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) species to climate-change induced environmental factors (stressors) is largely unknown. This is particularly true for phytoplankton responses to ocean acidification and the concomitant changes in temperature, vertical stability and light availability, and biologically available chemical species. The primary environmental stressor – the decline in pH resulting from increased partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) in surface waters – leads to greater carbon availability for plankton photosynthesis, less need for metabolically costly carbon concentrating mechanisms, and changes other aspects of cellular physiology – all changes that may alter the competitive interactions among species of harmful and non-harmful phytoplankton. In addition to altering the growth rates, decreasing pH may influence the cellular toxicity of some HAB species, including both diatoms (Pseudo-nitzschia spp.), and dinoflagellates (Alexandrium spp.), and alter the swimming abilities of others, such as the fish-killing raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo, as well as other physiological responses such as rates of photosynthesis and nutrient uptake - all of which have the potential to substantially influence HAB impacts. There have been significant advances over the past few years in understanding how ocean acidification influences various aspects of phytoplankton physiology and growth responses, however, there is considerable variation in how HAB species respond to pH change, challenging the ability to project how ocean acidification may influence the frequency or intensity of HABs. The recent PICES Special Publication on Ocean Acidification and Deoxygenation in the North Pacific Ocean provides a framework for identifying regions and times where ocean acidification stress is dynamic and increasing, and the newly established Global Ocean Acidification Observation Network (GOA-ON) is now beginning to incorporate co-observations of biological parameters that include HAB events and indicators. The confluence of these research resources provides new opportunities to study the mechanistic basis for, and outcomes of, ocean acidification-HAB species interactions. This Topic Session welcomes papers that address all aspects of how climate change affects HAB species, in particular the understudied consequences of ocean acidification on the cellular physiology and toxin production of HAB species in both laboratory and field-based studies.

The Biological Oceanography Committee (BIO) has a wide range of interests spanning from molecular to global scales. BIO targets all organisms living in the marine environment including bacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton, micronekton, benthos and marine birds and mammals. In this session, we welcome all papers on biological aspects of marine science in the PICES region. Contributions from early career scientists are especially encouraged.

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This session invites papers addressing general topics in fishery science and fisheries oceanography in the North Pacific and its marginal seas, except those covered by Topic Sessions sponsored by the Fishery Science Committee (FIS).

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This session invites papers addressing the promotion, coordination, integration and synthesis of research activities related to the contribution of the social sciences to marine science, and to facilitate discussion among researchers from both the natural and social sciences. We invite abstract submissions on any of these topics.

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Papers are invited on all aspects of marine environmental quality research in the North Pacific and its marginal seas, except those covered by Topic Sessions sponsored by the Marine Environmental Quality Committee (MEQ).

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Papers are invited on all aspects of physical oceanography and climate in the North Pacific and its marginal seas, except those covered by Topic Sessions sponsored by the Physical Oceanography and Climate Committee (POC).

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Posters from any workshop or science sessions that do not fit the workshop or session scopes are welcome

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Changes in the marine environment influence distribution patterns of marine organisms in pelagic, demersal, and benthic ecosystems associated with seamounts. Biogenic habitats formed by some of these organisms support a range of biodiversity and provide critical habitats for some socioeconomically important fishes and invertebrates that attract commercial fishing and other anthropogenic activities. This workshop aims to improve our understanding of factors influencing the diversity and distributions of species associated with seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, identify and begin applying models to understand the ecology and distribution of species associated with seamounts, and predict how they are likely to respond to natural and anthropogenic forcing, including climate change. In preparation for the workshop, participants will build on the work of WG-32 by compiling new and existing data on pelagic, demersal, and benthic seamount species in the North Pacific Ocean as well as the marine environment to improve model predictions and interpretations based on a multi-model approach. This workshop builds on quantitative approaches developed in a similar workshop convened by WG-32 in 2016. Applying habitat suitability models for the pelagic, demersal, and benthic biodiversity of seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean will be made for the collective biodiversity in these three ecosystems and for individual taxa, when plausible. Participants will be invited to discuss, compare, and evaluate the influence of predictor variable data, and different modelling approaches on results. This will help identify potential ecological and physiological mechanisms influencing seamount ecology and provide insight into the potential for changes in species distribution under different climate change scenarios. An anticipated novel outcome will be the first habitat predictions for seamount biodiversity at a basin-wide scale in the North Pacific Ocean. Workshop participants will synthesize lessons learned from the modelling exercise, future tasks to further improve predictive accuracy, and possible applications for supporting marine spatial planning processes.

The target LMEs of WG 39 and WG 44 are the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) and the Northern Bering Sea-Chukchi Sea (NBS-CS), that are geographically and dynamically connected. CAO is in rapid transition, driven by North Pacific environmental changes in significant part, has become accessible to a range of activities. Rapid loss of sea ice cover has opened up the CAO for potential fishing opportunities. In this context, the agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the CAO has been signed and entered into force, which will necessitate joint research and monitoring. NBS-CS is also experiencing unprecedented warming and loss of sea ice as a result of climate change. Declines of seasonal sea ice and warming temperatures have been more prominent in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas as in most portions of the Arctic. Chronic and sudden changes in climate conditions in this Arctic gateway are clearly reshaping the system and its food-webs, and enlarging opportunities for commercial activities (shipping, oil and gas development and fishing), with uncertain and potentially wide-spread cumulative impacts. An integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA) is a useful approach in this circumstance, particularly with substantial science and policy challenges emerging in the Arctic, and this renders a coordinated IEA of the CAO and NBS-CS a priority task. The main objectives for the workshop are to describe and discuss present ecosystem processes (sources, signals, significance) in the CAO and the NBS-CS based on achievements from existing and future research programs such as MOSAiC and SAS, numerous NBS-CS programs, and Indigenous Knowledge. In addition, it is of particular significance to developing future approaches for The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development in these oceans, where science for resilience and sustainability is more important than anywhere else and the relevant, regional UN program is yet to be properly initiated.

On World Oceans Day, June 8th, 2021, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission announced the first set of activities endorsed as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (UNDOS; 2021-2030). The program submitted jointly by PICES and ICES, Sustainability of MARine ecosystems Through knowledge NETworks (SmartNet), was endorsed as an UNDOS Program, ensuring that ICES and PICES will play a leading role in the development of UNDOS from its inception. The aim of SmartNet is to support and leverage ICES, PICES, and member countries’ priorities and initiatives related to the UNDOS, by emphasizing areas of mutual research interest and policy needs, including climate change, fisheries and ecosystem-based management, social, ecological and environmental dynamics of marine systems, coastal communities and human dimensions, and communication and capacity development. SmartNet will also incorporate strategies to facilitate UNDOS cross-cutting inclusivity themes relating to gender equality, early career ocean professional engagement, and involvement of indigenous communities and developing nations in the planning and implementation of joint activities. In this workshop, we will provide updates on SmartNet and other UNDOS activities and facilitate a broad discussion within the PICES community and amongst partners on methods and priorities for implementing SmartNet.

The global early career ocean professional (ECOP) movement has been gathering significant momentum since the launch of the UN Ocean Decade in January 2021. Officially endorsed as one of the first Ocean Decade Actions, the ECOP programme aims to promote and consolidate the regionally, culturally and professionally diverse perspectives brought by the next generation of ocean leaders. The establishment of inter-connected regional ECOP networks (e.g., ECOP Asia, ECOP Africa) that can co-create, co-design and integrate knowledge, share expertise, as well as sponsor training and professional development opportunities is an important building block towards sustaining inclusive and cross-cutting engagement between both early- and late-career communities. As such, we propose a workshop that will bring together the North Pacific ECOP group(s) to discuss and brainstorm: 1) the key needs (trainings, resources, etc.) of ECOPs to ensure proper career development, and 2) what ECOPs see as the key priority areas for the North Pacific to engage on through the UN Ocean Decade (e.g., through SmartNet). We will be inviting ECOP representatives and mentors from national, regional and global organizations or initiatives that specialize in interdisciplinary marine sciences and ocean policy (e.g., ICES, IOC, APN, ECOP Asia). The invited speakers will introduce their ECOP network, key goals and initiatives, early career engagement plans and current integration and partnerships within Ocean Decade activities, while highlighting the opportunities and shared goals for a North Pacific ECOP node. A proposal developed by PICES ECOPs (AP-ECOP) will be presented to the audience and feedback will be sought via interactive dialogues and participatory activities. While the primary aim of this workshop is to convene and initiate discussions with key partners and stakeholders from the global ECOP movement, a concrete set of recommendations will also be delivered to both the PICES secretariat and the ECOP programme representatives, and could also inform the SmartNet workshop discussions, as well as other UN Decade endorsed actions.

The North Pacific Ocean is a large and productive ecosystem that is characterized by strong interdecadal climate variability. This Ocean basin supports a number of fish species of great ecological, as well as economical, importance. A successful PICES FIS-Workshop, that was co-sponsored by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) at the 2019 PICES Annual Meeting (W2), focused on important current topics related to the biology and fishery of Pacific halibut and interacting species by bringing together researchers, scientists and managers from countries that are invested in this resource. An important outcome of this workshop was the need to increase the application of integrative approaches to improve our understanding of the biology and management of widely-distributed species, such as Pacific halibut, in the North Pacific Ocean, requiring a high level of cooperation at the international level. Therefore, to achieve these goals and as a step forward in addressing key areas of cooperation between PICES and IPHC as described in the current MoU between the two organizations, we are proposing a workshop that focuses on addressing emerging issues in key flatfish species with broad distribution across the entire North Pacific Ocean. Specifically, this workshop is intended to 1) improve the sharing of information on fishing efforts and management strategies across the North Pacific Ocean, and 2) promote international collaborative studies to improve our knowledge on movement of flatfish populations and potential distribution changes of flatfish and other interacting species in the face of climate variability. One important outcome of this workshop may be the proposal of a joint IPHC-PICES Study Group with terms of reference that address these issues, in addition to the publication of papers resulting from this workshop as a special issue in a relevant peer-reviewed journal, a key outcome of W2 of the 2019 PICES Annual Meeting.

The target LME of WG 44 is the Northern Bering Sea-Chukchi Sea (NBS-CS) which is undergoing rapid transition caused by climate change. Declines in seasonal sea ice, increased storm events, and warm temperatures are driving substantial changes in socio-ecological systems. New commercial opportunities such as shifting fisheries, oil and gas exploration, increased vessel traffic (shipping and access to land-based natural resources), and Arctic tourism will have uncertain cumulative impacts on coastal communities in the Northern Pacific and beyond. The NBS-CS Integrated Ecosystem Assessment will improve understanding of critical interconnected systems processes and inform decision-making and management. Including Indigenous Knowledge in the IEA provides best available expert knowledge to understand the past, present, and future socio-ecological conditions of the region. Indigenous Peoples across North Pacific communities have relied on marine resources for food security, social cohesion, economic livelihood, and cultural continuity for millennia. Including Indigenous Knowledge in the IEA process will enhance understand of changing social-ecological conditions while offering a longitudinal perspective across generations of ecological experience and observations. Employing a co-production approach, this workshop will generate a collaborative understanding of the multiple ways of knowing, experiencing, using, and valuing the North Pacific ecosystem. The main objectives for the workshop are to 1) describe linkages and knowledge pathways among regional organizations across scale (e.g., Indigenous communities, government agencies, NGOs, research networks, academic institutions) in the NBS-CS, and 2) document meanings, relationships, processes, and values associated with the NBS-CS ecosystem using a framework rooted in Indigenous Knowledge and designed to coordinate diverse perspectives. The results of the workshop will inform the regional NBS-CS IEA process while offering an innovative model for broader knowledge synthesis and co-production.

Anthropogenic stressors, such as climate change, plastic pollution, discharged toxins, fishery interaction, noise pollution, ship-strike, aquaculture, disturbance, and offshore wind farms impact marine birds, mammals and sea turtles, affecting their distributions and abundances. These stressors can act directly or indirectly on these organisms, and can pose a considerable challenge for marine conservation. Understanding how stressors affect marine birds, mammals and sea turtles is an important step in estimating and mitigating against these threats.

The aim of this workshop is to improve our understanding of anthropogenic stressors, and how they affect marine birds, mammals and sea turtles throughout the North Pacific Ocean. One of the main outcomes of the workshop will be the development of a Pathways of Effects style heuristic or conceptual model describing how stressors act on marine birds and mammals. Workshop participants will be invited to discuss a PICES region-by-region assessment of stressor importance, and how mechanisms of impact may differ among regions.

Ocean scientists, including PICES members, usually do amazing science, and often feel that their results speak for themselves. But many scientists are eager to learn new ways to communicate their work in a way that is more compelling and interesting for all audiences. Therefore, this workshop is the first in a series organized by the Science Communications Advisory Panel (AP-SciCom). Participants will become familiar with the proven ABT (And, But, Therefore) method of communicating science, and develop skills needed to broaden the social impact of our science. This first session of a series of workshops will provide participants with: 1) a general introduction highlighting important communication skills for ocean scientists, 2) tools for communicating the written word through the ABT method, and 3) an opportunity to develop written content or ideas for video content for the PICES website. During the first part of the workshop (day 1), participants will learn theories and concrete techniques, and during the second part (optional day 2, morning), will be given an opportunity to practice the ABT method: to create, share the communication outputs and receive a critique of their work. Stories will be shared with the broader community through various online channels such as PICES Twitter and website as tangible outputs of this workshop.

Download the workshop curriculum here.

To prepare for the workshop, you need to do the following:

• Watch: Narrative Structure is a Puzzle:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWmobO6enY0
  
• Watch 0:00 - 12:30: AAAS Video:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ungl-jozHLA
  
• Read: The Narrative Gym, by Randy Olsen
  http://abtframework.com/

High latitude regions are experiencing the fastest rates of climate change, with impacts on marine biodiversity and plankton diversity. The rapid changes in physical and chemical conditions are affecting the biodiversity of plankton communities, which includes the new appearance of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). For example, very recent observations show for the first time the appearance of paralytic shellfish toxin containing plankton far north of the Arctic Circle— a condition that would not have been possible with the very short planktonic growing season only two decades earlier. Indeed, northward moving Pacific warm waters are shown to now carry Alexandrium blooms as far north as the Chukchi Sea. The importance of higher latitude regions as sentinels for changes in biodiversity related to future HABs is highlighted in published proceedings from at least two international meetings co-sponsored by PICES, yet there are no organized efforts to develop the research and observational datasets essential to capture the anticipated regime transitions in higher latitude biodiversity and planktonic communities. This international workshop will bring together PICES and non-PICES experts from several nations to present their current findings on the distribution of HABs species and events in higher latitude waters. The morning session will be devoted to presentations on physical, chemical and biological changes, in terms of HAB species, in higher latitude waters. These presentations will provide the framework for the collaborative afternoon discussions summarizing our state of knowledge, identifying the most important information gaps, and charting the near- (5 year) and longer-term (10 year) research priorities. The goal will be to develop a multi-author position paper summarizing the state of current knowledge, identify the key research questions, and to develop a consensus plan on the path forward that will best accelerate our understanding of these rapidly emerging problems.

Ocean data in all forms contribute to understanding and informing management and sustainability of the world’s oceans and its ecosystems. Open sharing of that data and information across international boundaries remains a formidable challenge. The overarching motto of the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science is ‘the science we need for the ocean we want’. To obtain this, we need to share data openly across all regions, continents, and countries. There are many efforts at regional, national, and international levels working towards this goal. As the international community works towards this goal, it is unclear where redundant efforts may be occurring. For example, there are many organizations working towards the same goal of data sharing under the ‘transparent and accessible ocean’ theme for the U.N. Decade (examples listed at the end of this proposal). PICES is in a unique position to engage scientists and data managers from countries around the north Pacific to help facilitate open data sharing. In addition, some institutions may have data to share that don’t have ready access to usable data-sharing platforms. TCODE could facilitate a conversation about open data sharing and promote the connection of new data suppliers with known public data repositories. Inviting a wide range of participants, we will share histories, successes, and challenges of open data. This workshop will guide TCODE to an actionable role in facilitating data sharing between PICES member nations for the U.N. Ocean Decade. We will discuss potential areas of redundancy and identify entities that could be approached by TCODE for inclusion in broader data-sharing platforms. TCODE will identify suitable points of contact and summarize the national data archival strategies and data sharing policies for each member nation and expand upon this during the workshop. TCODE seeks to develop a set of recommendations for further discussion and action.
The specific objectives of the workshop are to:

1. Assess the potential for a new study group to recommend improvement strategies on data sharing between member nations, including creating a framework for data sharing for the future and open data sharing among PICES countries
2. Develop a recommended list of available data as well as repositories for open access to data.
3. Develop recommendations for updated TCODE data policy to include more specific information on data sharing.
4. Investigate barriers to open data sharing and exchange.