R/V Miller Freeman

At 215 feet, the Miller Freeman is the largest of the three vessels used for the Gulf of Alasaka studies. The Freeman can hold 31 crew and 11 scientists, cruise at 11 knots. Completed in 1967, the vessel was named after Miller Freeman (1875-1955), a publisher, who was involved in international management of fish harvests. During this cruise, the Miller Freeman is conducting fish trawls between Kodiak Island and Yakutat Bay to better determine what biological and physical factors affect juvenile salmon populations in the Gulf of Alaska. The study is testing three primary hypotheses about juvenile salmons’ ocean current preferences, association to water temperature and salinity, and migration routes through the region. Temperature and salinity profiles are taken at each trawl site as well as zooplankton haul nets. The juvenile salmons’ diets are being studied in correlation to the zooplankton distributions. Salmonids are also being identified for hatchery or wild stock origins, and catch per unit, scientific studies, and predatory factors are being analyzed to determine the distribution of pink, coho, chum, and sockeye salmon in the Northern Gulf of Alaska.

Ocean Sciences Division-Biological Oceanography
National Science Foundation

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