Over recent decades, the eastern North Pacific Ocean (ENP) has undergone significant climate-driven change, characterized by rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs), a northward expansion of the North Pacific Transition Zone (NPTZ), and more frequent marine heatwaves. Juvenile North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ), a highly mobile species sensitive to environmental variability, have emerged as a sentinel spec...

The North Pacific Transition Zone (NPTZ) is known as a global marine hotspot for many endangered and commercially significant highly mobile marine species. In the last few decades, the region has undergone unprecedented physical and biological transformations in response to climate variability and change. Although it is anticipated that many highly mobile species will need to adapt and shift their distributions, current predic...

The North Pacific Loggerhead sea turtle ( Caretta caretta ) undergoes one of the greatest of all animal migrations, nesting exclusively in Japan and re-emerging several years later along important foraging grounds in the eastern North Pacific. Yet the mechanisms that connect these disparate habitats during what is known as the “lost years” have remained poorly understood. Here, we develop a new hypothesis regarding a possible...

Climate change is expected to impact all aspects of marine ecosystems, including fisheries. Here, we use output from a suite of 11 earth system models to examine projected changes in two ecosystem‐defining variables: temperature and food availability. In particular, we examine projected changes in epipelagic temperature and, as a proxy for food availability, zooplankton density. We find that under RCP 8.5, a high business‐as‐u...

Given the threats of climate change, understanding the relationship of climate with long‐term population dynamics is critical for wildlife conservation. Previous studies have linked decadal climate oscillations to indices of juvenile recruitment in loggerhead sea turtles ( Caretta caretta ), but without a clear understanding of mechanisms. Here, we explore the underlying processes that may explain these relationships. Using th...

Fishery management measures to reduce interactions between fisheries and endangered or threatened species have typically relied on static time‐area closures. While these efforts have reduced interactions, they can be costly and inefficient for managing highly migratory species such as sea turtles. The NOAA TurtleWatch product was created in 2006 as a tool to reduce the rates of interactions of loggerhead sea turtles with shall...

Output from an earth system model is paired with a size‐based food web model to investigate the effects of climate change on the abundance of large fish over the 21st century. The earth system model, forced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Special report on emission scenario A 2, combines a coupled climate model with a biogeochemical model including major nutrients, three phytoplankton functional group...

The carrying capacity of the French Frigate Shoals (FFS) region for the endangered Hawaiian monk seal was appraised using an updated version of the original FFS Ecopath model ( Polovina 1984 ). Model parameters were updated using recent literature, and data from surveys of the seal population and its bottom‐associated prey. Together they produced a static mass balance model for 1998 when the prey surveys began. The Ecopath‐est...

The American Samoa fishing ground is a dynamic region with strong mesoscale eddy activity and temporal variability on scales of

Long‐term density data for the sea cucumber, Isostichopus fuscus , from Canal Bolivar (separating western Isabela and eastern Fernandina Islands), Galápagos, were compared with catch statistics and used in a stock depletion model to determine the extent of the effects of the fishery on the existing population and the potential for the population to recover after each fishing season. Recruitment indices were found to be low fro...

Satellite telemetry from 26 loggerhead ( Caretta caretta ) and 10 olive ridley ( Lepidochelys olivacea ) sea turtles captured and released from pelagic longline fishing gear provided information on the turtles’ position and movement in the central North Pacific. These data together with environmental data from satellite remote sensing are used to describe the oceanic habitat used by these turtles. The results indicate that log...

A bstract Efforts to enhance recovery of endangered Hawaiian monk seals ( Monachus schauinslandi ) require an understanding of factors influencing population dynamics. This study examines relationships between body condition and survival of monk seal pups at French Frigate Shoals and Laysan Island and El Niño events. Girth measurements and mass estimates were used as indicators of pup body condition, and survival was evaluated...

During January–May, surface manifestation of multiple, individual basin‐scale fronts accentuate the central North Pacific Subtropical Frontal Zone (STFZ) system. The most prominent of these fronts are climatologically located at 32°−34°N and at 28°−30°N latitudes [herein nominally referred to as the ‘Subtropical Front’ (STF) and the ‘South Subtropical Front’ (SSTF), respectively], although considerable interannual variability...

Nine juvenile loggerhead sea turtles tracked during 1997 and 1998 in the central North Pacific by satellite telemetry all travelled westward, against prevailing currents, along two convergent fronts identified by satellite remotely sensed data on sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll and geostrophic currents. These fronts are characterized by gradients in sea surface height that produce an eastward geostrophic current, wi...