hooks were fished on longline baskets with 

 9.1-m float lines, 2,160 hooks on baskets with 

 18.3-m float lines, and 2,340 hooks on baskets 

 with 36.6-m float lines. No specimens were 

 taken on longline gear with' 9.1-m float lines. 

 One Taracfichthys ateiudachiieri and seven 

 Tamctes rubesceiis were taken on longline gear 

 with 18.3-m float lines. One Taractichthys stei)i- 

 dachneri and three Taractes rubesceiis were 

 taken on longline gear with 36.6-m float lines. 

 Saury and squid were used as bait on alter- 

 nate baskets on each fishing station. More bra- 

 mids were taken on hooks baited with saury 

 than with squid. Nine Taractes rubesceiis were 

 caught on hooks baited with saury, and two on 

 hooks baited with squid. Both of the Tarac- 

 tichthys steiiidachiieri were caught on hooks 

 baited with saury. These results would indicate 

 that fish constitute an important part of the 

 diet of these bramids. However, only one of 

 five stomachs (4 Taractes rubesceiis and 1 

 Taractichthys steiiidachiieri) had fish remains. 

 Squid and shrimp remains were more frequent 

 in the stomachs. 



Literature Cited 



GosLiNE, W. A., AND V. E. Brock. 



1960. Handbook of Hawaiian fishes. Univ. Hawaii 

 Press, Honolulu, 372 p. 

 Mead, G. W. 



1972. Bramidae. Dana Rep. Carlsberg Found. 81, 

 166 p., 9 plates. 



Howard O. Yoshida 



Southwest Fisheries Center 



National Marine Fisheries Service 



NOAA 



HonolHhi, HI 96S12 



UPWELLING INDICES AND ANNUAL 



CATCHES OF DUNGENESS CRAB, 



CANCER MAGISTER. ALONG THE 



WEST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES' 



The Pacific Coast Dungeness crab. Cancer mag- 

 ister, fishery shows yearly fluctuations in the 

 catch. For example, since the 1948-49 season, 

 the Oregon catch averaged 8.3 million pounds, 

 with a range of 3.1 to 15.0 million pounds. Var- 

 iations between seasons are characteristic of the 

 fishery, however, long persistence of below aver- 

 age catches causes alarm in the industry. The 

 years 1962-64 were such a period of low catches. 

 The Pacific Marine Fisheries Commission (1964) 

 noted that these fluctuations in abundance oc- 

 curred uniformly along the entire west coast 

 of the United States. Therefore, they concluded 

 that some coast-wide environmental changes 

 were responsible for the fluctuating crab catches. 



Cleaver (1949) felt that the fishery had a 

 strong dependence upon the survival of the 

 young and that the abundance of the adult ani- 

 mals will fluctuate widely with conditions af- 

 fecting the earlier stages. The Pacific Marine 

 Fisheries Commission (1964) suggested that 

 perhaps seasonal changes in water circulation 

 patterns could sweep the pelagic crab larvae 

 into unfavorable settling habitats, causing high 

 larval mortality, thus accounting for fluctua- 

 tions in abundance of the marketable adult 

 crabs. Reed (1969) looked into the effects of 

 temperature and salinity on survival of crab 

 larvae. He concluded that these factors were 

 unable to cause large fluctuations in larval 

 survival. 



Upwelling is a coastwide environmental 

 phenomenon that varies from year to year. It 

 has not been mentioned in any reports discuss- 

 ing the Dungeness crab fishery and its fluctua- 

 tions. Yearly strength of upwelling is known 

 to fluctuate (Hubbard and Pearcy, 1971). It is 

 hypothesized that annual upwelling fluctuations 

 are related to annual variations in fishery 

 strength, since the west coast's resident com- 

 mercial species (bottom fishes, shrimp, Dunge- 

 ness crab, and mollusks) must depend in large 

 part upon the increased food production during 

 summer upwelling for their growth and sur- 



902 



