Copepods

Copepods

The Bering Sea supports some of the world’s largest and most important fisheries. The larval stages of these important species depend upon the availability of adequate types and amounts of planktonic organisms. Because of their importance, the planktonic organisms of the Bering Sea have been particularly well studied. However, vertical distributions and the degree of patchiness of planktonic organisms is less well known. To address these topics, a video plankton recorder sampled the water column at ~70 stations in the Bering Sea in the spring of 2009 as part of the BEST-BSIERP Program funded by the North Pacific Research Board and the US National Science Foundation.