1999 

 OUR LIVING OCEANS 



■V 





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Snow crab. 



ISSUES AND PROGRESS 



LITERATURE CITED 



Bycatch and Multispecies Interactions 



In general, crali and shrimp resources are de- 

 pressed throughout Alaska. Ihe red king and Fan- 

 ner crab stocks in Bristol Bay are particularly low. 

 The red king crab fishery was closed in 1994 and 

 1 995, Following assessment of the spawning stock, 

 which has declined to a low level. During the 1996 

 Tanner crab Fishery only 800 t was landed, and 

 the fishery was closed in 1997. 



The bycatch of crabs in trawl and pot fisheries 

 continues to be a major issue. Not only is bycatch 

 an allocation problem, but unknown mortalities 

 from discards of females and subadult crabs from 

 pot and trawl catches could have an impact on 

 the crab stocks. When crab abundance is low, the 

 unknown bycatch mortality, iFhigh enough, could 

 impose unacceptable risks to stock recovery. 



Alaska Department of I'ish ami (iame. IWH. Annual 

 management report for the shellfish Fisheries of the 

 We.stward Region, 1997. Regional Information Re- 

 port 4K98-4F 264 p. 



.Stevens, B. C R. .S. tittu, J. A. l\,u\p\. and R. A. 

 Macintosh, 1998. Report to industry on the 1996 

 eastern Bering Sea crab survey. National Marine Fish- 

 eries Service, Alaska Fisheries Science (Center Pro- 

 cessed Report 98-02, S2 p. 



National Marine Fisheries Service. 1996. Alaska shell- 

 tlsh Fisheries. !ii Our living oceans. Report on the sta- 

 tus of LI.S. living marine resources, 1995. U.S. De- 

 partment of Commerce, NOAATechnic.il Memoran- 

 dum NMFS-F/SPO-19, p. 107-109. 



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