 Radio Script 2001 __________________ Alaska Marine Species List
STORY: So far, Brad Stevens' list totals more than 750 species of crabs, fish, plants, and marine mammals—everything from the quarter-sized fuzzy crab to the one-ton Steller sea lion. Stevens is a crab biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Kodiak, Alaska. He started the list more than a decade ago. STEVENS: "This list grew out of a class I was teaching. I was teaching a class called 'Exploring Kodiak Tide Pools' for about ten years here. I put together a list of common intertidal creatures that students could expect to find in our tide pools. And that list grew over the years to about 100 species." At first, Stevens counted only species found in the tide pools, bays, and inlets around Kodiak Island. But as more and more scientists became interested doing research along Alaska's coast, he expanded it to include just about any species found in Alaska's Southcentral waters. STEVENS: "My rule of thumb is if you can find it within a day's boat ride from the town of Kodiak, then it's on my list. I've included a lot of stuff from the Alaska Peninsula, across Shelikof Strait, because there was a lot of work done there as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. These are just marine species. It doesn't include seabirds or animals that don't live underwater. It doesn't include things that live around the shoreline, insects and things like that. It's totally marine species." The list doesn't include rather obscure invertebrates, such as marine worms, that live in the mud and sand of the seafloor. But the list does include some 71 crab species, six of which Stevens only recently discovered atop underwater mountains some 250 miles south of Kodiak. Stevens says there are so many marine species because Kodiak Island and the Gulf of Alaska offer an amazing variety of habitats. STEVENS: "I think it has to do with the variety of habitats that are available. We're an open-ocean coast, so we have a lot of high-energy beaches, and that's a habitat that generates a lot of diversity. You can go down to the Inside Passage (in Southeast Alaska) and go tide-pooling there and you'll find much less diversity. Even if you get into some of the sheltered bays around Kodiak, diversity drops dramatically. But if you go out on some of the exposed coastlines we have, you'll find a lot of diversity here, a lot more species. We have shallow bays that are good nursery sites for a lot of species. And we have open continental shelf very close to shore so it gets a lot of nutrient input, and we have the very deep Aleutian Trench running close to shore, plus sea mounts and cold-water methane seeps. There's just a great variety of habitats." Stevens says its important that people know about the treasure trove of marine life just beyond their doorstep so that they'll protect it for future generations. STEVENS: "We tend to think in terms of commercial value of these things. King crabs are important because you can catch them, you can sell them, you can make money on them, you can eat them. That's true. But these other lesser-known species are important for many reasons. They have important functions in the ecosystem. They have particular niches they fill, jobs that they do. If they were missing, that job might not get done." OUTRO:This is Arctic Science Journeys Radio, a production of the Alaska Sea Grant Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'm Doug Schneider. Audio version and related Web sites Thanks to the following individual for help preparing this script:
Dr. Brad Stevens Arctic Science Journeys is a radio service highlighting science, culture, and the environment of the circumpolar north. Produced by the Alaska Sea Grant College Program and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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