FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 3 



shellfishes in Prince William Sound, Alaska 

 (Grant No. 1-36109). 



METHODS 



Field work was accomplished from June 1971 

 through October 1971 in Galena Bay, a small 

 embayment in the northeastern portion of 

 Prince William Sound (lat. 60°58'N, long. 

 146°44'W), 20 miles from the town of Valdez. 

 Two gravel beaches and one mud flat were 

 sampled on the north side of Galena Bay 

 (Figure 1); all were completely covered by 

 water at the highest spring tides. The major 

 features of the study sites are summarized in 

 Table 1 and Figure 2. 



The weather conditions in the study area 

 were, in general, typical of south-central Alaska 

 with overcast skies and considerable precipi- 

 tation. Summer air temperatures were generally 



on the order of 7.5° to 10 °C (also see Searby, 

 1969). Longshore surface-water temperatures 

 in Galena Bay ranged from 8° to 18.2 °C during 

 the study period. No extended winter water 

 temperatures are available for Galena Bay; 

 however, we observed the freezing of shallow 

 tidal pools in Galena Bay in January 1973 

 (Feder and Paul, unpubl. data). The National 

 Ocean Survey (1970) recorded mean surface- 

 water temperatures in the Cordova region 

 (approximately 60 miles from Galena Bay) as 

 a minimum of 2°C in February and a maximum 

 of 11°C in August. Beach-surface temperatures 

 during the study period ranged from 9°C in 

 October to 32 °C in July with the latter value 

 15 °C higher than longshore seawater tempera- 

 tures measured at the same time. 



Sampling was accomplished by transecting; 

 the actual positions of the transects on the 

 beaches were arbitrarily selected. Collections 



70° 



150 



60° 



50° - 



40° - 



30^ 



I30° 120° 



W '4 «L rr^ 1^0° 



NORTH PACIFIC 



_L 



I 



_L 



_L 



50° 



40° 



30' 



150° 160° I70° I60° 170° I60° 150° 140° 130° I2C 



Figure \. — Galena Bay, Prince William Sound, Alaska. The study area for the investigation. 



666 



