324 
Fishery Bulletin 1 13(3) 
toward smaller terminal sizes (Elner and Beninger, 
1995; Tamone et al., 2005; Sainte-Marie et al., 2008)? 
Reduced reproductive output from multiparous fe- 
males could place greater reliance upon mating and 
spawning of pubescent-primiparous females, which 
are known to have a lower fecundity (Haynes, et al., 
1976; Sainte-Marie, 1993). Because multiparous mat- 
ing is important for long-term sustainability of the 
snow crab in the eastern Bering Sea, it is important 
to ensure that adequate numbers of large MM males 
survive each year. 
Acknowledgments 
D. Pengilly provided the impetus for the research. R. 
Alinsunurin, J. Conner, and C. Armistead contributed 
to the tagging process and data acquisition. Reviews 
from L. Rugolo, J. Turnock, J. Webb, and 2 anonymous 
scientists significantly improved this manuscript. S. 
Hughes and the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foun- 
dation (BSFRF) secured the vessels used for tagging. 
We are very grateful to skippers M. Wilson and J. 
Hochstein and to the crews of the FV Kiska Sea and 
FV Pacific Sun. We also acknowledge the staff of the 
NMFS Shellfish Assessment Program in Kodiak, Alas- 
ka, for the collection of data, upon which the presented 
distributions of snow crabs in the eastern Being Sea 
are based. This research was supported by the BSFRF, 
the National Cooperative Research Program (NOAA/ 
NMFS), and the Marine Conservation Alliance. 
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