Stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands to the Bering Strait, the Bering Sea is one of the world's most dynamic and productive marine ecosystems. The formation and melting of the annual ice edge drives plankton productivity which is the basis of the entire Bering Sea marine food web.

The extent and thickness of sea ice is rapidly diminishing in the Bering Sea as a result of global climate change. Warming temperatures and loss of Arctic sea ice is dramatically altering coastal and marine life.  Changes include increased storm surge and coastal eriosion with impact on low lying villages, threats to the survival of ice-dependent marine mammals and changing distributions of fish populations.

Fisheries management in the Bering Sea will confront stark challenges as ecosystem-wide changes affect the abundance and distribution of fish species throughout the region. AMCC is working with communities in the region to develop a bottom trawl zoning plan to preempt the expansion of industrial fisheries northward as they follow moving fish populations into previously unexploited waters.

Cold-water coral and sponge gardens can be found throughout the Aleutian Islands. These habitats provide high relief  habitat of stunning beauty and diversity for fish and other marine life.