Figure 2.- -Diagrammatic migrations of tagged kings crabs, 1957-62 (232 returns). 



Migrations demonstrated by location of re- 

 lease and recapture of tagged crabs show 

 that crabs released offshore in late summer 

 generally migrated shoreward. Returns from 

 single offshore release locations were often 

 caught in more than one bay, indicating that 

 the summer stock offshore was made of com- 

 ponents found in separate locations at other 

 times of the year. Tagged crabs released 

 inside of or near the mouths of bays were 

 usually returned from the same general area, 

 indicating little movement between bays. 

 Minimum distances of individual crab mi- 

 grations varied from to about 110 miles, 

 but more than 90 percent of the returns indi- 

 cated migrations of less than 35 miles (table 

 2). Since crabs were tagged offshore during 

 the summer and recoveries were made 

 inshore at other times of the year, the 



migrations may be maximal for these 

 stocks. 



Extreme migrations in this study include 

 two crabs taken by trawl in False Pass on 

 the same day in April 1958. The crabs were 

 released north of Unga Island, traveled about 

 110 miles southwest, and were at liberty for 

 about 200 days. A crab captured in Balboa 

 Bay in the fall of 1958 showed a migration in 

 the opposite direction of similar magnitude. 

 It was released north of Sanak Island, traveled 

 about 110 miles northeast, and was at liberty 

 just over 1 year. 



The depths in which tagged crabs were re- 

 captured also indicate seasonal inshore-off- 

 shore movement, since crabs were captured in 

 deeper waters during the summer and fall 

 (table 3). 



