Open-File Report 00-032: Physical Characteristics of Dungeness Crab and Halibut Habitats in Whidbey Passage, Alaska

Glacier Bay Park

Glacier Bay National Park is a 3.3 million-acre park and preserve that extends from Icy Strait and Cross Sound in the south to the Canadian border in the northwest (Figure 1, 198K). In the last 200 years, the large glacier that filled Glacier Bay during late Neoglacial time (commonly referred to as the Little Ice Age, Goldthwait, 1963), has retreated, exposing about 100 km of a spectacular fjord system that has developed over possibly the past 100,000 years (Goldthwait, 1987). As the glacier has retreated, the newly exposed benthic habitat has undergone rapid physical and biological changes making it an ideal site to study glaciology, fjord sedimentation, and species succession (Milner and Woods, 1990; Engstrom, 1995).

Commercial fishing is one of the major sources of income in the adjacent communities. There is also an economically important recreational fishery in the area. But, significant questions have been raised in Congress as to whether fishing should be allowed in Glacier Bay Park. Mapping of the benthic habitat will result in improved management of the fisheries resources in the area.

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For more information, contact the PCMSC team.

This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards or with the North American Stratigraphic Code. Use of trade, product, or firm names in this report is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Suggested citation:
Cochrane, Guy R., Carlson, Paul R., Boyle, Michael E., Gabel, Gregory L., and Hooge, Philip N., 2000, Physical Characteristics of Dungeness Crab and Halibut Habitats in Whidbey Passage, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 00-032, https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/0032/.

U.S. Department of the Interior
SALLY JEWELL, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey
Suzette M. Kimball, Acting Director