[♪ and rushing water]
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Kris Holderied: So, we right now are in
wonderful Kachemak Bay, Alaska.
We've been pretty happy to live here
and grow up here.
Syverine Abrahamson: I grew up digging clams here.
They are the favorite food of
many people in our communities,
especially our Native communities across the bay.
Michael Opheim: When we first moved here,
you could go across the bay and,
within a few minutes,
have two buckets of clams.
In the mid 80's, that died off,
and in the early 2000's,
the rest of Kachemak Bay started to die off for clams.
Mike Geagel: There used to be a lot of
dungeness and tanner crab.
Both of those are gone. Shrimp's gone.
There's not many left out here to make a living at
if you're a commercial fisherman.
Narrator: Today, the beauty of Kachemak Bay holds on.
Fishing and tourism remain the drivers of the local economy
but many commercial fishermen and local clammers
are still hoping their resources will bounce back
from decades of closures and depleted stocks.
Local, state, federal and tribal stakeholders
are looking for answers, and solutions.
Kris Holderied: Something that's helped us
tremendously in the past couple years
is that Kachemak Bay got designated by NOAA
as a Habitat Focus Area,
and that really enables us to
take our efforts and combine them,
a little bit more smartly,
with the partners that we've been working with
for a long time.
Narrator: Kachemak Bay contains all of the different
marine habitats that exist in the Gulf of Alaska,
from glacially fed estuaries
to open ocean-like conditions,
from salt marshes to kelp forests,
and clam-supporting mudflats
to some of the most diverse rocky intertidal in the world.
And all this exists in this 40-mile bay,
which makes it a natural laboratory
for studying changes throughout the Gulf of Alaska.
So, some of the ways we're trying
to understand these changes
is oceanographic monitoring.
We're looking at temperature and salinity
and dissolved oxygen,
and turbidity and light.
We also do vertical tows for zooplankton
and we collect surface water for phytoplankton.
So, we're really trying to understand
these different pieces of the marine ecosystem,
how they work, how they change in space and time.
Narrator: Another research focus is understanding
the baseline of what's in Kachemak Bay now
so change can be documented.
This includes taking existing
mapping data of the seafloor
and combining it with drop camera surveys.
For shallower waters,
divers embark on more thorough surveys
and also look for invasive species.
Invasive species are a non-native species
that will come into an area
and then they can either out-compete,
or fill a niche and make it so that the
native species can't survive.
We've been doing dive surveys in areas that
have a lot of traffic
or a lot of incoming boats.
We want to be able to know if
things are being brought in.
We also want to know if things are changing.
Kris Holderied: The other piece of what we do
is within the intertidal.
And you look at the percent cover,
look at the different species of kelp.
It's a measure of the biodiversity.
One example that we've seen in the past couple years
is that we've lost the sea stars.
And not just here in Kachemak Bay,
but also in other parts of the northern Gulf of Alaska.
Narrator: Understanding these systems
is critical in changing times.
The past couple years have also seen
significant warming in Kachemak Bay
and throughout Alaska.
In addition, ocean acidification is on the rise,
fish populations have changed,
and toxic algae blooms have become more frequent.
Syverine Abrahamson: I think that having a habitat focus area
established here gives us a springboard
to address these human health issues.
It really changed from a dream to a reality
as far as coordinating among all of our partners.
Narrator: Today, a collaborative monitoring program is in place
and results are shared with the community
to warn people from harvesting toxic shellfish.
The scientific community is also working together
to raise clams at a nearby hatchery,
which are outplanted in Kachemak Bay.
These trials will help nail down the best
locations and habitat types for future restoration.
And all these efforts are centered
around engaging the community.
Syverine Abrahamson: What we like to do with our public outreach
is really instill a sense of stewardship and appreciation
for the ecosystem and the animals within it.
And by doing that we help
develop a conservation ethic at an early age.
Narrator: The focus for Kachemak Bay going forward
is resilience,
resilience for the community
and for the ecosystem in a changing world.
And the more information the Habitat Focus Area digs up,
the more prepared decision makers will be
for future resource use,
conservation,
and restoration throughout the Gulf of Alaska.
Kris Holderied: So, the bottom line
to a lot of the research we're doing
is we're trying to keep people safe.
And it's taking the data that's out there
and having it used better
for the management of the resources
that we care about.