Overview

In 1991, the Environmental Monitoring Committee (EMC) initiated steps to develop and manage a comprehensive environmental monitoring program for Cook Inlet. The goal of this program is to determine if oil-industry operations in Cook Inlet are having adverse effects on the surrounding ecosystem and, if so, to document their sources, magnitude, and spatial and temporal trends. Based on a 1992 model recommended by Cook Inlet RCAC contractors, a pilot study was initiated in 1993 to provide data against which to evaluate a longer-term environmental monitoring program. Based on this model, further environmental monitoring studies were conducted in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997.

Two types of monitoring strategies were used. The Sediment Quality Triad (SQT) approach was employed to measure sediment hydrocarbon contamination, sediment toxicity, and signs of pollutant-related ecological stress. Water quality monitoring using Semi-permeable Polymeric Membrane Devices (SPMDs) and the "mussel watch" approach was used to indicate whether bioavailable petroleum hydrocarbons were present in the water column. Related abiotic parameters were also measured, including sediment grain size and total organic carbon.

In 1998, an independent review was contracted to:

• Summarize the existing data and results
• Evaluate the methods and environmental monitoring approaches used to date
• Evaluate how effectively the existing data could be used as baseline information against which future chronic or acute oil-industry impacts might be measure
• Recommend further efforts for assessing temporal and spatial oil-industry impacts to the Cook Inlet environment

As a result of recommendations made by these contractors, as well as input from a public forum, the committee shifted focus of its monitoring efforts from subtidal SQT-type studies to obtaining baseline intertidal information which would be necessary to determine any future impacts of spilled oil to Cook Inlet’s shorelines. The lack of pre-impact data increased costs and reduced the statistical power of damage assessment studies after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

The first step was to conduct reconnaissance surveys to identify potential populations of organisms that can be monitored over time and act as “sentinels” to future hydrocarbon contamination. Surveys were conducted in 2000 and 2002 where habitat was described and sediments and tissue samples (from clams, mussels, and polychates) were analyzed for hydrocarbons. A major data gap was identified for nearshore habitat during these surveys and, as a result, a shoreline habitat mapping program was initiated.

Currently, the environmental monitoring program includes aspects that encompass subtidal, intertidal, and habitat mapping and monitoring.

Overall Program Goals

• Maximize the collection of pre-impact data prior to any catastrophic inputs of hydrocarbons or other potential oil industry related contaminants
• Maximize the availability of pre-impact data, both spatially and temporally, to increase our ability to detect change
• Make data accessible to resource agencies, the public and other organizations
• Acquire shoreline habitat data
• Educate stakeholders about our study results

In 2000, Cook Inlet RCAC conducted a pilot project for intertidal monitoring on Cook Inlet shorelines that include sites most likely to be impacted by an accidental release of crude oil. Most of the shoreline in the middle and upper inlet had not been surveyed and data on the resources living there and on sediment or beach characteristics were scarce. In addition, there was almost no data on concentrations of hydrocarbons or other potential contaminants to Cook Inlet; data that are necessary to be able to address our OPA 90 mandates. Surveys in this area would provide valuable information on intertidal assemblages on hard and soft substrates, characterize sediments and geomorphology of the shoreline, and identify biological resources that would be most appropriate as sentinel species. These same types of data were missing from almost the entire Exxon Valdez oil spill area before the spill. The lack of these data made the studies of most state and federal resource agencies and universities much more difficult and expensive.

Background data need to continue to be collected in order to expand the database to include all of Cook Inlet’s shorelines, to incorporate more intertidal species, and to allow us to monitor the habitats across time. To date, the small database of background sediment and tissue data show very low concentrations of hydrocarbons in sediments and in tissues. By expanding these data, we can assess whether this is true for all parts of Cook Inlet and will have the data necessary to track changes. These data will benefit anyone who may need these data in the future, including state and federal agencies, as well as the Cook Inlet oil industry.

Our previous surveys in subtidal areas provided invaluable data for these same users. We recently partnered with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to conduct a Coastal Assessment of the Gulf of Alaska’s coastal bays and estuaries by looking at a suite of contaminants in benthic sediments and organisms. The study design was based on a probabilistic survey design which allowed us to “scale-up” from a suite of 50 sampling sites. We would like to conduct a similar assessment within Cook Inlet that would assess sediment, benthic, and water quality indicators within the context of the larger Gulf of Alaska study.

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Arctic Relict Fauna and Flora

This project is an analysis of archived samples and specimens collected during intertidal and subtidal surveys in Cook Inlet to evaluate whether they are relict Arctic species.  The study is based on previous work conducted on the lower west side of Cook Inlet when taxonomic identifications of epifaunal invertebrates collected in the 1970s for the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program bore a striking resemblance to species reported for the Alaskan Arctic.  Additional information provided by other historical invertebrate collections in the area indicate that these west side species and assemblages more closely matched Arctic species and assemblages than those on Cook Inlet’s east side or in other areas of the Gulf of Alaska and this study will further evaluate these historical specimens.  Appropriate international taxonomic experts for each group of species have been contracted to provide the level of detail required to assess the potential for a relict Arctic flora and fauna assemblage on Cook Inlet’s west side.

This study is evaluating archived specimens of intertidal and subtidal invertebrates and algae from Cook Inlet’s west side to compare assemblages to other areas of Cook Inlet and Alaska.  There has been speculation in the literature that these assemblages on the west side of Cook Inlet more closely reflect species that occur in the Alaskan Arctic than those in other areas of Cook Inlet.  This study will compare species lists from Cook Inlet’s west side to species lists form the Arctic and other areas of Cook Inlet (e.g. Kachemak Bay).  In addition, archived samples from the University of Alaska museum have been sorted and are being identified to the lowest taxon possible by taxonomists who specialize in the various classes of plants and animals.  This is the first step in a project that may lead to additional field sampling.  If in fact there are relict Arctic assemblages in Cook Inlet, there could be limitations to recruitment from outside the population and the individual species may be sensitive to shifts in oceanic circulation or temperature and salinity regimes.

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Background Contaminants Database

Cook Inlet RCAC has conducted surveys of various soft sediment habitats throughout Cook Inlet to look for potential sentinel species populations that could be used to monitor contaminant levels throughout the inlet. In addition, sediment hydrocarbon concentrations and fingerprint profiles were determined. Source hydrocarbon samples were also collected to help in the interpretation of hydrocarbon signatures in the background sediments. The data from these projects are currently being compiled into a geo-referenced database to provide easier access to the information and to make comparisons to other similar datasets possible. By providing these data as a georeferenced dataset, the data can be layered within the habitat mapping GIS database so that sentinel populations can be linked to the ShoreZone habitat database.

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ShoreZone Mapping

One of the Cook Inlet RCAC mandates under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is to devise and manage a comprehensive program of monitoring the environmental impacts of the operations of terminal facilities and of crude oil tankers while operating in …Cook Inlet. To this end, Cook Inlet RCAC has put significant efforts towards increasing our knowledge of Cook Inlet’s environment to better be able to identify any potential chronic, acute, or potential impacts. We have taken a multi-pronged approach, with the overall goal of building a database of Cook Inlet coastal habitats that will allow us to better plan for and protect sensitive shorelines and improve our ability to detect change. The major goals of our coastal monitoring program are to:

• expand a coastal mapping program that includes both aerial imaging and detailed on-the-ground data collections;
  
  
• conduct an environmental monitoring program that identifies populations of important intertidal and subtidal species, analyzes background concentrations of potential contaminants in intertidal and subtidal sediments, and analyzes tissues of organisms living and feeding in Cook Inlet.
  
  
• collect source data to better be able to identify natural versus anthropogenic inputs of hydrocarbons or other potential contaminants (e.g. heavy metals) to Cook Inlet.

Coastal Mapping

While researching options for providing coastal habitat information, a technique named “ShoreZone Mapping” came out as tool that had been successfully applied to the entire coast of Washington State and British Columbia. It made sense to use a method that had been tested and applied to areas that had many similarities to the south central coast in terms of species, types of assemblages, remoteness of coastlines (especially in much of B.C.). ShoreZone provides “broad brush” information; information about physical and biological nearshore environment across large geographic areas for relatively low cost; this method provides a “big picture” approach that will provide information that can be summarized at regional levels and help us to define areas at which we need more detailed habitat mapping for other purposes. We recognized the wide range of applications of the data, beyond obtaining shoreline habitat information useful for understanding potential impacts by oil industry operations.

Cook Inlet RCAC conducted a pilot ShoreZone mapping program in Cook Inlet in 2001 and has actively sought additional funding sources and partners to expand this program outside of Cook Inlet. We have successfully described the idea of coordinated coastal mapping to other local, state, and federal agencies and are actively partnering to continue this program.

Although we have successfully expanded our small pilot program into a larger plan, we see that there is still significant work that needs to be done in the region. That work includes:

• Improving ShoreZone Mapping methods for areas that are unique in Alaska. For example, many miles of Cook Inlet shorelines have intertidal zones that are several miles wide. ShoreZone methods have had difficulty accurately mapping these types of habitat and efforts need to be made towards improving our ability to map wetlands and wide coastlines. We are working with the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve to develop plans for mapping these areas that would be mapped as “polygons,” instead of as “lines” as most of the coastline of Alaska has been mapped.
  
  
• Expanding the mapping database for wetland and saltmarsh areas. In doing so, we would further integrate the Coastal Mapping database with the environmental monitoring database developed for our intertidal monitoring program. This would require features in the Coastal Mapping database where “point” data can be inserted and chemistry data could be queried as part of the mapping database.

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SeaweedsofAlaska.com

Cook Inlet RCAC is sponsoring a website that displays images and information for many of the seaweeds that occur on beaches in the Gulf of Alaska. Mandy Lindeberg photographed over 120 different seaweed species and is working with web developer Wayne Saucier of Octavient, Inc. to compile the information and images within a web-based, searchable taxonomic structure. Taxonomic expertise is being provided by Dr. Sandra Lindstrom.

The home page of the website allows visitors to access seaweed information through a search tool or by looking at links to individual species organized under the categories for green, red, and brown algae. The imagery available for each species might include photos of the algae in their natural habitats, at different stages of growth or bleaching, in a close-up of a single plant, or as a pressed specimen. In a few instances, microscopic detail showing individual cells is provided. The web site also describes different intertidal habitats and regions of the Gulf of Alaska and shows map locations of individual sampling sites where intertidal photos have been collected. In July, the website was presented in Juneau at the annual meeting of the Phycological Society of America, a gathering of botanists who specialize in algae.

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ShoreZone Beach Survey - Aniakchak National Park

Also in July, Cook Inlet RCAC led a small team of scientists on a short survey of rocky reef habitats along the Aniakchak National Park coastline, which is on the Alaska Peninsula “downstream” of Cook Inlet based on prevailing ocean currents. We know that oil spilled in Cook Inlet could potentially impact areas along the Peninsula and this has been illustrated by the pathways of Cook Inlet RCAC’s drifter buoys that were released during a different study tracking surface ocean currents near Cook Inlet. The Aniakchak beach surveys were conducted through a partnership with the National Park Service to collect species diversity measurements in intertidal areas and to ground-truth ShoreZone biophysical data collected in 2003. The project is an expansion of the larger ShoreZone mapping efforts to provide a contiguous, continuous dataset for biophysical habitats in the intertidal and shallow subtidal areas of the Gulf of Alaska (www.coastalaska.net).

Eight sites were intensively sampled to provide invertebrate and algal species lists for the park. The biophysical maps produced from the 2003 aerial surveys were assessed at over 50 sites – verifying the alongshore and across-shore geomorphology and major biota.

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ShoreZone Beach Survey – Forage Fish Surveys

Cook Inlet RCAC worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in several areas of the Gulf of Alaska to conduct ShoreZone beach surveys in intertidal areas where NMFS scientists were conducting fish capture surveys just offshore. The fish capture surveys were to assess forage fish use of nearshore habitats by comparing fish use of kelp, eelgrass, sand, and rock wall habitats. Data and digital imagery collected during earlier ShoreZone surveys were used to pre-identify sampling locations.

The field studies were led by Mandy Lindeberg and Scott Johnson of NMFS. Ms. Lindeberg’s study consisted of recording information about the intertidal areas, including species-level assessments of invertebrates and algae as well as measuring specific beach attributes such as sediment type and beach profiles. Mr. Johnson’s team deployed either a beach seine or a nearshore purse seine in the shallow subtidal areas just offshore of each intertidal sampling location. These data will be provided as a data layer within the larger ShoreZone web-served data.

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Salt Marsh Mapping

Many areas of Cook Inlet are surrounded by wide salt marshes that can extend miles inland. Some of these areas have a significant risk of being impacted in the event that an upper Cook Inlet oil spill reaches the shoreline during higher tides. Salt marshes are particularly sensitive to spilled oil since the marsh plant roots and sediments retain the oil. They are not cleansed by natural tidal action as some shore types are and clean-up options are limited by logistics and the fact that response actions can cause more damage than does leaving the oil in place. The existing Cook Inlet coastal habitat databases lack detailed information about the extent of salt marshes and the plant species associated with different areas within the marshes. These habitats are best mapped as polygon units which can show total area of a habitat. This complements Scientist walking transect to collect Salt Marsh plant data in Upper Cook Inlet. Photo by Steve Baird/Conrad Field ShoreZone data which provides good regional summaries of salt marsh locations represented as lines or points along the shore.

In 2006, Cook Inlet RCAC initiated a project to map saltmarshes in upper Cook Inlet by contracting with scientists Conrad Field and Steve Baird from the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. The biologists spent about a week on the ground in each of Trading, Redoubt, and Chickaloon bays, moving on foot to map specific salt marsh plant associations. They also used a helicopter to obtain GPS data to more accurately map the data and to access parts of the marshes that were difficult to reach on foot. The final GIS maps of these sensitive salt marsh areas will provide data about a habitat for which we currently have little baseline information.

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Macrocystis Kelp Mapping

Several years ago during our ShoreZone helicopter surveys in the Kodiak Island area, scientists discovered a bed of the canopy kelp Macrocystis spp. on Afognak Island outside of Foul Bay. We verified its presence in 2005 by collecting voucher samples while conducting intertidal beach surveys in the area. Last August, a Cook Inlet RCAC research team conducted a short exploration expedition to the area and included scientific divers, GIS mappers, and an algal taxonomist. During the week-long survey onboard the R/V Norseman, the team mapped the kelp beds; obtained species-level information for fish, invertebrates and seaweeds associated with the kelp beds; and collected tissue samples of the kelp for future DNA analyses.

Cook Inlet RCAC is collecting historical aerial photographs and interviewing local fishermen who have fished in the western Afognak Island area to determine whether this plant has recently expanded its range in the area or if it had just missed being detected until our regionwide coastal mapping efforts. Although the western geographic range of this plant historically included Kodiak, there were no documented reports of actual beds of Macrocystis – only reports and collections of individual plants.

Also of interest to Cook Inlet RCAC, is that the kelp is a unique habitat in an area that is downstream of the major water currents from Cook Inlet. In the Gulf of Alaska, only two other canopy kelps provide the floating kelp habitat that some fish and marine mammal species prefer. These are bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) and dragon kelp (Alaria fistulosa) both of which provide habitat for hiding and feeding. In contrast to bull and dragon kelp which are annuals that can grow from the bottom to the surface in one year, Macrocystis is a perennial, which remains year-round. Macrocystis can grow in a very dense band along the shoreline, which could have impacts for shoreline access or oil spill response. In our study area, it created an almost impenetrable barrier to shoreline access and is extremely dense from the low intertidal to about 10 meters depth. By studying this kelp now, we will be able to tell if it expands along the coast and be better able to evaluate how that might affect nearshore habitat.

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