FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 3 



search personnel on stock assessment and tagging 

 cruises and by NMFS observers aboard foreign 

 fishing vessels. In the following we distinguish be- 

 tween survey data and observer data because the 

 sampling designs differed considerably. In both 

 cases, however, crabs were measured with calipers 

 to the nearest millimeter according to the descrip- 

 tions in Wallace et al. (1949). 



Survey Data 



From 1981 to 1983, NMFS conducted 10 survey 

 cruises sampling the eastern Bering Sea population 

 of golden king crab with either bottom trawls or 

 commercial king crab pots (Table 1). All crabs were 

 measured for carapace length, and females were 

 classified into one of four categories of reproduc- 

 tive condition: 



1) Non-ovigerous - no embryos or empty egg 



cases attached to the pleopod setae. 



2) uneyed embryos - embryos without conspicu- 



ous dark eyes. 



3) eyed embryos - embryos with dark eyes. 



4) empty egg cases - empty egg cases and funi- 



culi attached to the pleopod setae. 



When opportunity occurred, one or more of the 

 following were also collected: 



1) height of the right chela of males (excluding 

 males with partially regenerated right chela). 



2) Total wet body weight of males, measured to 

 the nearest gram on a triple beam balance or to the 

 nearest 5 g on a handheld spring scale (excluding 

 males with damaged exoskeletons or missing 

 appendages). 



3) egg masses from females (stored in Formalin 3 

 diluted to 10% with seawater). 



Observer Data 



Golden king crab, like most of the other large 

 Alaskan crabs, is classified as a prohibited species 

 and, as such, may not be retained if captured by 

 foreign fisheries. Because of this status, NMFS 

 fishery observers routinely record the carapace 

 length, sex, and number of golden king crab that 

 are incidentally caught by foreign vessels during 

 their normal fishing operations for other species 

 (Nelson et al. 1981). To delineate the distribution 



Table 1.— Inclusive dates, latitude and depth ranges, number of 

 crabs sampled and type of sampling gear are shown for each of 

 the 10 golden king crab research cruises conducted by the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service. 



'Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 



of golden king crab in the eastern Bering Sea, we 

 chose to examine the 1981 and 1982 observer data 

 obtained from Japanese small stern trawlers that 

 fish for turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) be- 

 cause 1) these vessels use trawls designed to remain 

 in direct contact with the bottom and are therefore 

 likely to catch crabs, 2) these vessels operate year- 

 round along nearly the entire length of the continen- 

 tal slope of the eastern Bering Sea, and 3) turbot 

 have a depth distribution similar to that of golden 

 king crab. Although these data are not necessarily 

 a random sample of the golden king crab population, 

 they are the most extensive data available and in- 

 clude samples from the entire depth range of golden 

 king crab during all four seasons. The number of 

 crabs measured and the number of trawl hauls 

 sampled are summarized by year, month, latitude, 

 and depth (Table 2). Due to a lack of Japanese 

 fishing effort for turbot, observer data were unavail- 

 able for areas south of lat. 54°15'N. 



Both survey and observer data, in some instances, 

 were partitioned into three latitudinal strata or 

 subareas (Fig. 1): northern (north of lat. 58°30'N), 

 central (between lat. 58°30'N and 54°15'N), 

 southern (south of lat. 54°15'N and east of long. 

 173°00'W), which correspond approximately to the 

 crab management districts used by the Alaska 

 Department of Fish and Game. In addition, the 

 observer data were partitioned into two depth strata 

 separated at the approximate median depth (500 m) 

 of the samples (nearly the entire depth range of 

 golden king crab is bounded by the 200 m and 1,000 

 m isobaths). 



Methods of Analysis 



Size-frequency distributions by sex were con- 

 structed from the combined 1981 and 1982 observer 



572 



