44 
Fishery Bulletin 108(1 ) 
to minimize bycatch by sablefish pots, it may be a bet- 
ter strategy to use a pot type that is less efficient in 
terms of kilograms per hours soaked, but that has a 
lower bycatch rate. 
Additional considerations to the season and type of 
pot used in a directed North Pacific giant octopus fish- 
ery must be made to ensure that fishermen are not 
disproportionately harvesting spawning giant octopuses. 
During two captures in which we manipulated females, 
they extruded spermatophores. Although females after 
spawning survive to care for eggs, males die within 
a month of copulation (Hartwick, 1983; Arnold et al., 
1987) leading us to assume that the four octopuses 
captured dead were recently spawned males. Due to 
decomposition of the bodies we could not confirm sex; 
however, other observations of deteriorating body con- 
ditions of males during the second survey support this 
conclusion. Lair pots, to be efficient, rely on the giant 
octopuses using them as a den for short periods of time. 
During the breeding season, females may use these pots 
to lay and brood their eggs. If females do use lair pots 
for denning and giant octopuses exhibit a migration 
to inshore waters to reproduce (Hartwick, 1983), care 
must be taken to ensure a large enough escapement 
to prevent localized depletions and ensure sustainable 
harvest. 
Acknowledgments 
We are grateful to those who helped in collecting data: 
D. Scheel, J. Grund, D. Veerhusen and the crew of the 
FV Shady Lady , G. Carroll and the crew of the FV Cen- 
turion, and J. Browning. We thank L. Kamin, S. Barry, 
and five anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on 
earlier versions of the manuscript, C. Hay-Jahans for 
statistical advice, and Q. Smith for assistance with GIS. 
This research was supported by a grant from the Alaska 
Fisheries Development Foundation, Inc. 
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