FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 87, NO. 1 



icantly more female than male 0. stephensoni were 

 collected (Table 6). Male crabs (S CW = 34 mm, 

 n = 1,278) were comparable in size to females 

 (x CW = 33 mm, n = 1,840); however, most of the 

 crabs collected were immature, being smaller than 

 sizes (short carapace width) at full sexual maturity 

 of 61 mm for males and 51 mm for females given 

 by Haefner (1985). This supports previous observa- 

 tions (Williams 1984) that there is a positive size- 

 depth relationship for the species. 



Callinectes similis 

 The lesser blue crab occurs in the oceanic littoral 



zone where it is commonly associated with the blue 

 crab. Along the east coast of the United States, C. 

 similis ranges from Delaware Bay to Key West, but 

 is primarily a Carolinean species. Northern occur- 

 rence of the species occurs seasonally during years 

 with favorable annual temperature (Williams 1984). 

 Callinectes similis ranked fourth in terms of num- 

 ber of individuals among all species collected in this 

 study and occurred in 64% of the trawl tows made. 

 The species constituted 10% of the total biomass, 

 which was considerably less than C. sapidus (Table 

 1). The stratified mean catch per tow for numbers 

 and weight was highest in summer and fall (Table 

 5). Tagatz (1967), who did not distinguish between 



Portunus gibbesii 



Ul 

 Q. 



CO 



—I 

 < 



9 



> 



Q 



O 



CC 

 LU 



m 



< 



LU 



120 



100 

 80- 

 60- 

 40- 

 20 



180 



160H 



140 



120- 



100- 



80 



60i 



40 



20-1 





5/20 



10/15 



4/15 ^m '°^^'> 



I 1^1 I 



6/15 



" Ovalipes stephensoni 



29/38 

 1/25 6/25 p-| 



i^^i_HMJ L 



WINTER SPRING 



Figure 4.— Seasonal catch rates of the 



SUMMER FALL 



dominant decapod and stomatopod species. 



166 



