## SPACC Meeting

At their January 1994 planning meeting, the Steering Committee of GLOBEC.INT recognized SPACC, a project on "Small Pelagics (fish) and Climate Change", as a new element of the GLOBEC International Program. The objective of SPACC is to better understand the impact of climate change on pelagic fish population dynamics through comparisons among ecosystems supporting these populations. The goals are to:

- describe the characteristics and variability of the physical environment, zooplankton population dynamics and their effect on pelagic fish stocks such as sardines, anchovies, and sprats in key ecosystems

- improve existing knowledge on the nature and causes of long-term changes in these ecosystems.

The program is multidisciplinary involving climatologists, paleoecologists, physical and biological oceanographers, modelers, geneticists and fishery scientists. The scientific approach is to conduct comparative studies of biophysical processes in the sea using direct field measurements, analysis of long-term time series and paleoecological techniques.

A meeting will be held in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico from June 20-24, 1994 to develop a science plan on how SPACC will be implemented. Local host for the meeting is Dr. Daniel Lluch-Belda (Phone: 52-112-53633; Fax: 52-112-53625). For further information about this meeting contact one of the co-chairs (John Hunter, NMFS, La Jolla, CA, Phone: 619-546-7127, Fax: 619-546-7003, Internet: john_hunter@ccgate.ssp.noaa.gov; or Jurgen Alheit, Baltic Sea Research Institute, Rostock University, D-18119 Warnemunde, Germany, Phone: 49-381-5197208, Fax: 49-381-5197440)