FISHERY BULLETIN; VOL. 72. NO. 3 



distribution of egg-bearing king crabs with empty 

 egg cases shown in Figure 9 was determined from 

 trawling in May 1969 and 1970 (data combined). 

 Weber (1967) also reported that in Bristol Bay, 

 king crabs usually release their larvae in May. 



ton was not collected south of Unimak Pass 

 during the present study, and the question of 

 recruitment of king crab larvae into Bristol Bay 

 from areas south of the Alaska Peninsula 

 must await a more detailed investigation. 



RELATION BETWEEN 



DISTRIBUTION OF LARVAE 



AND CURRENT PATTERNS 



My observations of the dispersal of stage I 

 larvae from the release areas generally agree 

 with the known patterns of water currents in the 

 study area. Hebard (1959) found that in the 

 southeastern Bering Sea water moved counter- 

 clockwise toward Bristol Bay along the Alaska 

 Peninsula and away from Bristol Bay in the more 

 northern parts of the southeastern Bering Sea. 

 Under these conditions larvae released in the 

 Black Hills-Port Moller area would be carried 

 northeastward along the Alaska Peninsula 

 toward the head of Bristol Bay. The seasonal 

 shift of larvae shown in Figures 1 to 7 cor- 

 responds closely with this pattern of water 

 movement. 



Because of differences in water currents, the 

 direction of seasonal shift of larvae is different in 

 the Unimak Island area than it is to the east. 

 Oceanographic studies in this area, summarized 

 by Dodimead, Favorite, and Hirano (1963), show 

 that water from the Gulf of Alaska flows north- 

 ward through the interisland passages of the 

 Aleutian Islands in the southeastern Bering Sea. 

 Such a flow pattern through Unimak Pass is 

 consistent with the apparent northward move- 

 ment of king crab larvae from the Unimak 

 Island area (Figure 3). 



On the basis of his findings on water currents 

 in the southeastern Bering Sea, Hebard (1959) 

 postulated that recruitment of king crab larvae 

 into the Bering Sea may occur through the island 

 passages of the Aleutian Islands, especially Uni- 

 mak Pass. If this is so, then the possibility exists 

 that the stock of king crabs in Bristol Bay is 

 derived to some extent from larvae released south 

 of the Alaska Peninsula. Unfortunately, plank- 



LITERATURE CITED 



Dodimead, A. J., F. Favorite, and T. Hirano. 



1963. Review of oceanography of the subarctic Pacific 

 region. Int. North Pac. Fish. Comm., Bull. 13, 195 p. 



Hebard, J. F. 



1959. Currents in southeastern Bering Sea and possible 

 effects upon king crab larvae. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 

 Spec. Sci. Rep. Fish. 293, 11 p. 



KURATA, H. 



1964. Larvae of decapod Crustacea of Hokkaido. 6. Litho- 

 didae (Anomura). [In Jap., Engl, summ.] Bull. Hok- 

 kaido Reg. Fish. Res. Lab. 29:49-65. 



Marukawa, H. 



1933. Biological and fishery research on Japanese king- 

 crab, Paralithodes camtschatica (Tilesius). [In Jap., 

 Engl, abstr.] J. Imp. Fish. Exp. Stn. 4, 152 p., 19 

 plates. 



PosGAY, J. A., R. R. Marak, and R. C. Hennemuth. 



1968. Development and test of new zooplankton samplers. 

 Int. Comm. Northwest Atl. Fish., Res. Doc. 68-34, 7 p. 



Sato, S., and S. Tanaka. 



1949. Study on the larval stage of Paralithodes cam- 

 tschatica (Tilesius). I. Morphological research. Hok- 

 kaido Fish. Exp. Stn. Res. Rep. 1:7-24. (Translated by 

 L. M. Nakatsu, U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Seattle Biol. 

 Lab., 1968, 24 p., 3 plates; available from Northwest 

 Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, Seattle, WA 

 98112.) 



Takeuchi, I. 



1962. On the distribution of zoeal larvae of king crab, 

 Paralithodes camtschatica, in the southeastern Bering 

 Sea in 1960. Bull. Hokkaido Reg. Fish. Res. Lab. 

 24:163-170. (Translated by E. H. Ozaki, U.S. Fish Wildl. 

 Serv., Seattle Biol. Lab., 1967, 10 p.; available from 

 Northwest Fish. Cent., Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., NOAA, 

 Seattle, WA 98112.) 

 1968. Nanto Bering-Kaiiki ni okeru tarabaganizoea 

 yochu no bumpu ni tsuite (1957-1958) (On the dis- 

 tribution of zoea larva of king crab, Paralithodes 

 camtschatica, in the southeastern Bering Sea in 1957 

 and 1958). [Engl, summ.] Bull. Hokkaido Reg. Fish. 

 Res. Lab. 34:22-29. (Fish. Res. Board Can., Transl. 

 Ser. 1195.) 



\Veber, D. D. 



1967. Growth of the immature king crab Paralithodes 

 camtschatica (Tilesius). Int. North Pac. Fish. Comm., 

 Bull. 21:21-53. 



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