Improved Fishery Forecasting is Topic of CCPO Seminar

Fei Chai, an oceanographer at the University of Maine, will present a seminar at Old Dominion University's Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography (CCPO) Monday, Nov. 23, on recent computational modeling advances that are allowing researchers to accurately forecast Pacific Ocean anchovy catches up to nine months in advance.

The seminar, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 3200 of the Innovation Research Park Building 1 in University Village. Refreshments will be served beginning at 3.

Chai topic is "Modeling Peru Upwelling Ecosystem Dynamics: From Physics to Anchovy." Chai's work off the coast of Peru is providing evidence that variability of the ocean ecosystem and its impact on fishery yields can be forecast with enough lead time to be useful to society. The research links climate variability and nutrient- and plankton-dynamics to the growth, abundance and distribution of anchovies in waters off the coast of Peru.

His over all model combines a circulation model, biogeochemical processes model and a model of anchovy reproduction and growth. The resulting catch forecasts can help improve anchovy fishery management.

Chai is a professor in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine.