Research inventory and recommendations regarding marine forage species in Alaska

Forage species (including classic “small pelagic fishes” as well as juvenile fishes and invertebrates) serve a key intermediate trophic role in marine food webs, functioning as both predator and prey, through which energy is transferred from primary consumers to higher trophic levels. Environmentally-driven changes in the availability of forage species as prey can have profound impacts on commercial, protected, and subsistence species (Pikitch et al. 2014), but projecting future impacts will be challenging. In particular, numerical ocean models can support seasonal and end-of-century forecasting for ocean physics and lower trophic levels (primary and some secondary producers), but forage species will likely require ongoing monitoring, process research, and syntheses to predict environmental impacts. Furthermore, stakeholders are increasingly interested in forage species impacts, as shown by North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPMFC) inquiries and legislative requests (Ormseth 2020).