Living Resources Program 



The main goal of this program is to provide the scientific 

 basis for improved management and use of the ocean's living 

 resources. Primary emphasis of the Living Resources Program 

 to date is on understanding the complex physical and biological 

 processes in coastal upwelling ecosystems. 



Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis 

 (CUEA) 



The Coastal Upwelling Ecosystems Analysis (CUEA) 

 project is a team effort involving more than 20 ocean scientists 

 — biological, chemical, and physical oceanographers, as well as 

 meteorologists, and specialists in underwater acoustics. Basic- 

 ally, there are two groups of studies — one investigating food 

 chains in coastal upwelling ecosystems, and the other investigat- 

 ing the physics of coastal upwelling systems. Participating 

 scientists outline specific experiment objectives. These are 



brought together in designing major field experiments and 

 formulating an overall model for a coastal upwelling ecosystem. 

 Regions of upwelling are characterized by the ascending 

 motion of ocean water and diverging currents at the surface. 

 These regions can occur where prevailing winds from land 

 force surface waters seaward away from the coast, and are 

 most conspicuous along the west coasts of continents. As 

 surface waters are blown seaward, they are replaced by colder 

 nutrient-rich water from greater depths. Plankton feed in the 

 nutrient-rich water, become abundant, and support (are food 

 for) fish and other swimming life forms (nekton). Thus, areas 

 of upwelling generally have high concentrations of fishes. It is 

 estimated that about 50% of the yield of the world's com- 

 mercial fisheries comes from the major areas of coastal up- 

 welling. Prediction of commercial nekton stocks can be im- 

 proved by better understanding the physical and biological 

 processes that affect their productivity in coastal upwelling 

 ecosystems, and through the development of techniques to 

 assess and predict levels of productivity in these ecosystems. 

 The NSF office of IDOE is funding 20 CUEA projects (table 

 6). 



MESCAL and CUE 



Preliminary CUEA field studies have been completed. 

 MESCAL I and II, which were primarily biological studies, 



The Batfish, a towed underway pump and sens- 

 ing body used in CUEA. 



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