Cod Crash Caused by Warm Sea Bottom, Loss of Spawning Grounds
This is Alaska Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Keys to the Gulf cod crash.
Warmer temperatures on the ocean bottom were key in causing the cod crash in the Gulf of Alaska.
That’s the conclusion of a NOAA Fisheries study that connected low numbers of cod larvae, juveniles and adults to loss of spawning grounds in the 2013–2016 heatwave called “the Blob” – the largest warm anomaly ever recorded in the North Pacific.
Pacific cod are unique among all cod species because they only spawn once in a season...
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