general cruise plan
Many collaborative research cruises to the eastern Bering Sea are planned for the duration of the field program.
The study area spans the southeastern shelf from the Aleutians north to St. Lawrence Island; and from the shallow inner shelf (40 m depth) to the deep continental slope (2000 m depth)
Cruise Planning
Healy early spring cruise (HLY0901)
March 10-31, 2009
This 21-day walrus-prey patch dynamics study will primarily evaluate the ice-oceanographic ecosystem supporting a highly productive benthic prey field for walrus and spectacle eider predation. Patch dynamics is a conceptual approach to ecosystem and habitat analysis that emphasizes the dynamics of heterogeneity within a system.
Benthic-oriented measurements have been taken in the northern Bering Sea for many years because the region is known to support highly productive benthic communities and food resources for benthic-feeding apex predators, including gray whales, bearded seals, walruses, and diving sea-ducks — all of which are important for subsistence hunting by local Bering Sea communities.
Healy late spring cruise (HLY0902)
April 3-May 11, 2009
The overall objective of this cruise is to describe the lower trophic levels of the Bering Sea ecosystem under varying conditions of ice cover in order to better understand ecosystem response to ongoing changes in climate, ice cover (extent of ice cover and timing of ice formation and retreat), and accompanying oceanographic conditions. To this aim, around a dozen projects will be supported on board the USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea.
Knorr summer cruise (Knorr 195-10)
June 14-July 13, 2009
The overall science objective for the cruise is to further the aims of the BEST-BSIERP Bering Sea Project that seeks to understand the role of sea ice in the structure and regulation of biological populations on the eastern Bering Sea shelf, and in particular the invertebrate, fish and marine mammal populations of importance to people.
The objectives for the KN 195-10 cruise will be to characterize summer conditions on the eastern shelf, particularly as they relate to the impact of the ice distribution from the prior winter. This includes the seasonal evolution of the nutrient and phytoplankton fields, as well as the distribution and abundance of the zooplankton and ichthyoplankton.
The BEST-BSIERP Bering Sea Project is a six-year study of the Bering Sea ecosystem,
from the benthos and the atmosphere to human communities, and everything in between.
NORTH PACIFIC RESEARCH BOARD 
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
Contact the BEST-BSIERP Program Manager with project-related questions.
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