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Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

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The assumption that, at least for the larger juvenile king crab, the<br />

floc is composed mainly of the soft tissues of prey items identified<br />

visually is more reasonable than the assumption that floc derives mainly<br />

from a different <strong>and</strong> unknown set of prey items. The main evidence for the<br />

position comes from the immunoassay. For the larger juvenile crab the<br />

immunoassay detected the same polychaetes <strong>and</strong> clams detected visually but<br />

often did so in stomachs where the items were, in fact, not detected<br />

visually. This result indicates the presence of soft tissue from the prey<br />

items amid the visually unrecognizable organic matter. Also, for the<br />

larger juvenile crabs, of the two items that the immunoassay detected<br />

beyond those detected visually one was a polychaete. Furthermore, as<br />

discussed above concerning the clam, Spisula polynyma, the crabs may be<br />

ingesting the meat of clams in greater amounts than the presence of hard<br />

parts in the stomach indicates. For the larger juvenile king crab (CL =<br />

<strong>53</strong>-80 mm) the floc comes mainly from polychaetes <strong>and</strong> clam tissue <strong>and</strong> not<br />

from some totally different, unknown set of prey items. This position<br />

implies that the most reasonable estimates of daily caloric intake were<br />

those calculated without floc, 17.5 <strong>and</strong> 42.2 calories/g crab wet<br />

weight/day in June <strong>and</strong> August.<br />

The situation for the yearling king crab (CL

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