Alaska cod population nose dives

Seattle Times, - Gulf of Alaska cod populations appear to have nose-dived, a collapse fishery scientists believe is linked to warm water… “They get weak and die or get eaten by something else,” said [NOAA’s Steve Barbeaux]… The 2017 trawl net survey found the lowest numbers of cod on record… Scientists are trying to unravel what happened… a lot of the cod hatched in 2012 appeared to survive… But by 2017, those fish were largely gone for the surveys, which also found scant evidence of fish born in subsequent years… Many of the cod that have come on board trawlers are long skinny fish… according to Brent Paine, executive director off United Catcher Boats… “This is a big deal,” Paine said. “We just don’t see these (cod) year classes disappear from one year to the next”