rates was accepted as reflecting causes associated with 

 the confinement or escape effort. 



If recovery were reduced for crab escaping the pots, 

 then we would want to know if it were related to length of 

 confinement. Our experimental procedure did not permit 

 us to record exactly when a particular crab left a study 

 pot. We were, however, able to obtain samples of crab 

 that reflected short (1-4 days) and long (10-16 days) con- 

 finements. 



Crab that had escaped from pots soaked only 1-4 days 

 were recorded. Because the crab that left the pots after 

 10 days could not be recorded, we recorded tagged live 

 crab remaining in long-soak pots at the time of their 

 retrieval. Those crab that were apparently uninjured and 

 viable were released, with the tag intact, in a manner 

 similar to the free-released crab. Tag returns from the 

 two groups were compared to determine whether those in 

 the 10- to 16-day group had returns similar to those held 

 1-4 days. 



We recognize certain limitations to this procedure, 

 particularly the fact that those crab designated as "long 

 soak" were subjected to one additional lift and further 



on-deck handling. Moreover, we could not assess the pos- 

 sible predation occurring during any of the short-time 

 periods that surface-released crab were returning to the 

 sea floor. However, no marine mammals were in the 

 vicinity. 



Incidental Catch Observations 



Other animals captured in king crab pots may also 

 suffer the consequences of long confinement. Both inver- 

 tebrates and fishes were captured during our studies. 



No attempt was made to establish escape rates for 

 snow crab, although they were in newly every pot lifted. 

 Because snow crab are considerably smaller than king 

 crab and scuba observations show them to be more ac- 

 tive, it is likely that snow crab can readily escape king 

 crab pots. They may not, however, easily escape from 

 snow crab pots. 



Records were kept of our capture of fishes. Fishermen 

 were interviewed to learn how frequently nontarget 

 species were captured in pots. 



Table 1. — Escapement and soak time of undersize and legal-size king crab for various pot types. 



