Oceanic Waters

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has been conducting surface water trawl surveys since 1992 in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Alaska and in the high seas of the Gulf of Alaska. These surveys initially focused on determining the migratory patterns (1992-2002) and on the growth and physiology (2003-2016) of juvenile Pacific Salmon. Since 2016, these surveys have been broadened to monitor the whole pelagic ecosystem, retaining a focus on juvenile Pacific Salmon. In this record, surveys were conducted in continental slope waters at depths greater than 400 m out to the Gulf of Alaska, between 1995 and 2011. Periodically, there are tows from surveys conducted in other regions that occurred on the continental slope and they are included here. This set of data also includes data collected during the International Year of Salmon survey in 2022.