LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear NPRB Community,
What did the North Pacific Research Board accomplish in 2017 and 2018? The answer extends well beyond the numbers for these two years: $9.2 million in funding awarded to 27 institutions, passing the $114 million mark in 2018 for funds disbursed since NPRB began funding research in 2002. NPRB’s accomplishments presented in this biennial report are possible because of
• The work of scientists who received subawards in that two-year span; • The ongoing research and analyses of previously-funded scientists; and • The commitment of an exceptional group of board and panel members, peer reviewers, staff, and other friends of marine research in the North Pacific.
Each of your contributions is essential to NPRB’s success, and we thank you for your support.
Congress mandates NPRB to “place a priority on cooperative research efforts designed to address pressing fishery management or marine ecosystem information needs,” 43 USC §1474d(e)(2). The 2018 revision of the NPRB Science Plan, the first since it was published in 2005, was a major accomplishment this biennium. The 2018 Science Plan looks to the future while demonstrating the myriad ways in which NPRB-funded science has responded to our Congressional tasking (see page 8 for download instructions). In 2018, we also launched an analysis of the more than sixteen years of NPRB funded research and how it is used to address those management and information needs. NPRB’s first Alaska Sea Grant Fellow Marguerite Tibbles is helping us design and conduct the study. We look forward to presenting more results of her study in the next biennial report. NPRB continues to fund collaboration among researchers and integration across scientific disciplines and ecosystem components with its Integrated Ecosystem Research Programs (IERPs). Three Arctic IERP research cruises successfully collected critical data: two late spring oceanography cruises to the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas in 2017 and 2018 at infrequently sampled locations and times of year, and a summer 2017 cruise throughout the Chukchi Sea to study physics and chemistry, plankton, fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. Cruise reports are available at https://www.nprb.org/arctic-program/preliminary-results/. The Arctic IERP invests more than $18 million of NPRB and partner funds and in-kind support (BOEM, North Slope Borough/ Shell Baseline Studies Program, Office of Naval Research, NOAA, UAF, USFWS, NSF) over five years to examine marine processes in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas. A project of this scale is possible because of innovative partnerships with agencies, research institutions, and private and industry support.
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N O R T H P A C I F I C R E S E A R C H B O A R D
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