As shown in the following tabulation, 

 king crab landings in 1957 showed increases 

 over those of previous years, except for 

 the Bering Sea and Cook Inlet areas. 



Sand Point-Cold Bay 



Active research programs are proceed- 

 ing in each of the king crab fishing regions. 

 In the Bering Sea, research is conducted 

 under the auspices of the International 

 North Pacific Fisheries Commission, and 

 south of this area investigations are con- 

 ducted or supported by the Alaska Region 

 of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. To 

 determine the extent of interchange of king 

 crabs between the Bering Sea and the Gulf 

 of Alaska, biologists of the internationcil 

 fisheries group tagged 1,999 crab in the 

 summer of 1957 south of the Alaska Peninsula 

 near the Shumagin Islands. To date 93 tags 

 have been recovered, primarily from the fall 

 and winter fishery. The seasonal movement 



shown by this tagging (figure 37) is to 

 inshore waters. On the basis of present 

 findings, no significant mixing of Gulf of 

 Alaska crab with Bering Sea crjib is evident. 

 Biologists of the University of Washington 

 College of Fisheries, under support of a 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries contract, 

 are continuing the development of a system 

 of data collection and analyses that will 

 provide catch and effort information on king 

 crab. Their techniques involve the use of 

 logbooks and are being field tested in the 

 Sand Point -Shumagin and Kodiak areas. 



Also in the Kodiak area, with Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries support, biologists 

 of the Alaska Department of Pish and Game 

 are studying the growth and movement of 

 king crab. This research is carried out 

 principally in Chiniak Bay. 



The Bureau's crab research laboratory 

 in Kachemak Bay serves as a base of opera- 

 tions for both the University of Southern 

 California contractor and the Bureau studies 

 of the Cook Inlet fishery. The University 

 of Southern California group is conducting 

 a tagging program to ascertain population 

 movement and growth of king crab in Kachemak 

 Bay and lower Cook Inlet. Results to .date 

 have shed considercible light on the biology 



ALftSKft 



Figure 37. — King crab tag recoveries. 



27 



