Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

SECTION 4.0
DISCUSSION
4.1 Larval Distribution and Abundance
4.1.1 Interannual Comparison of Larval Abundance
The extensive discussion of larval population dynamics given by Armstrong,
et al. (1983b) presented evidence that larvae are distributed
nearshore along the NAS in most years, are virtually absent offshore
over the middle and outer shelf domains, and are present but poorly
studied in Inner Bristol Bay. By comparing larval data sampled in
successive years along the NAS, it was found that larval densities in
the western region* were generally low in recent years. In the years
1976 and 1977, larval densities were high at a mean value of 13,200
larvae per 100 m 2 , but in the years 1978 to 1982 were 400 to 700 per
100 m 2 (Armstrong, et al. 1983b). These authors suggested that the
reduction in larvae along the western NAS had been caused, in part, by a
shift of mature females offshore and to the east in the southeastern
Bering Sea, and by a reduction in the female population. Again in 1982,
mean larval density throughout subarea IL was low, 440 per 100 m 2 , due
in part to a large number of zero stations in very shallow water (