FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 84, NO. 3 



61 



ST. 



MATTHEW 



ISLAND 



/l S 



fV MAT 



^V-ISL 



NORTHERN 



PRIBILOF 

 ISLANDS 



PftlBILOF 

 CANYON 



CENTRAL 



59 



-57 



■55 



-53 



*fr/^' 



SOUTHERN 



51 



180 



178 



176 



174 



172 



170 



168 



Figure 1.— Areas of the Bering Sea and eastern Aleutian Islands where golden king crab were sampled by 

 U.S. fishery observers and National Marine Fisheries Service research cruises. Golden king crab occur primarily 

 in a region bounded by the 200 m (solid line) and 1,000 m (dashed line) isobaths. The dark lines indicate the 

 separation of this region into the three latitudinal strata discussed in the text. 



Female size at maturity was estimated as the size 

 at which 50% of the crabs were mature. Weighted 

 nonlinear regression (weights equal to the inverse 

 of the binomial variance at each size) was used to 

 fit a logistic equation to the percentage mature 



within 5 mm size intervals. The fitted logistic equa- 

 tion was then evaluated to determine the carapace 

 length corresponding to 50% maturity. Variance of 

 this size was estimated using the formula provided 

 in Somerton (1980). 



574 



