Observations from the 2019 and 2020 Expeditions have still left our panel of scientists with big questions about the distribution, competition, and behavior of salmon on the high seas. The panelists hope to learn whether distribution is driven by biological factors, like prey availability, or by physical factors, like temperature, time of year, or winter sea conditions. Dr. Hunt is concerned with these interconnected components as well as temporal factors — what are salmon doing outside of February and March, and where are they distributed? Dr. Weitkamp wondered about the full geographic breadth of salmon across the North Pacific, and whether distributions might vary by stock as well as species. Both Dr. Weitkamp and Dr. Hunt emphasized the importance of recent advances in our genetic understanding of salmon due to technologies such as environmental DNA (eDNA). eDNA, in combination with trawls and plankton nets, can help us identify the prey, predators and competitors of salmon, and the pressures salmon face in the high seas The researchers hope to better understand salmon diets and behaviors, such as diet variation in wild and hatchery-origin salmon and the prevalence of schooling. Sabrina Garcia also pointed out that one of the biggest unanswered questions concerning salmon in the open ocean is where the survival bottlenecks occur that determine how many salmon will return home to their natal rivers. With various climate events increasing in extremity year after year, finding bottlenecks at various life stages can help inform management actions. Aleksey Somov also underlined the need to understand the severity of winter conditions for salmon survival, as low returns are often attributed to harsh winter conditions with limited evidence.