PORT ANGELES, Wash. — A battalion of scientists looking for salmon left Washington state Monday bound for the North Pacific Ocean. The expedition is made up of around 40 scientists from five countries on four ships.
The Shimada left Port Angeles Monday, bound for Alaska and then the waters between the United States and Russia.
Dr. Laurie Weitkamp, the chief scientist for the expedition, spoke to KING 5 from The Shimada, explaining that the scientists will be studying lots of different water habitats but primarily focusing on salmon because the majority of a salmon’s life cycle happens in these waters.
"The goal is really trying to understand oceanic salmon habitats," Weitkamp said. "We know a lot about salmon when they're in our coastal ocean, but we don't know very much at all about when they leave."
That's in part because very few people have been in this part of the north Pacific Ocean – 500 miles into the rough, remote waters – at this time of year.
"We had much smaller surveys in 2019 and 2020," she said. "But we've never had a four-boat [expedition]. This is really unprecedented in the last century to have this many ships out at once, doing essentially the exact same things on every ship and being able to cover [such] a big chunk of the North Pacific at once."
Weitkamp called it a voyage of discovery.
After about a month at sea, she expects to be back on shore by March 7.
The scientists are updating their findings along the way, and you can follow here.