Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

time to temperature. Time from egg-hatch to molt of stage I (SI) to
stage II (SII) varies from 24 days at 2°C to nine days at 8°C (Kurata
1960). Severe climatological changes could account for large fluctuations
in survival of a year-class and later recruitment to the fishery.
Niebauer (1981) shows that the limit of ice in the southeastern Bering
Sea (as a relative measure of water temperature) was several hundred
kilometers farther south in 1976 than 1979 and actually extended to the
Alaskan Peninsula near Black Hills. Both 1975 and 1976 were severely
cold years and poor survival of larvae and juveniles then could account
for low abundance of sublegal males five to six years later in 1981-82.
Growth of larvae is substantial during pelagic development with increases
from about 200 mg dry weight as new SI zoeae to over 1,200 mg as
megalopae (Armstrong, et al. 1983b). Feeding habits and prey preference
of larvae in the wild are unknown, but both zooplankton and centric
diatoms have been found in guts of specimens from the NAS (D. Armstrong,
unpublished data from June 1983). Paul, et al. (1979) studied the
response of red king crab zoeae to food density and found that while
several species of copepods were captured, the density required greatly
exceeded natural densities as measured by integrative bongo tows. Paul
and Paul (1980) studied the effect of temperature and starvation on
subsequent ability to capture food, and found that red king crab zoeae
held at 2° and 4°C without food for 84 hours were unable to capture prey
when later presented. This result suggests that starvation may be
caused by relatively short periods of low food abundance and is applicable
to considerations of early zoeal ecology along the NAS.
1.3.4 Benthic Biology of Young Juveniles
Little is known of the distribution and abundance of young-of-the-year
(0+) crabs and of subsequent instars through two years of age (1+)
along the NAS and, in fact, throughout the southeastern Bering Sea;
providing information on this life-history stage (stanza) is a major
objective of the present project. Weber (1967) described shallow water
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