Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

1981b). Larvae hatched in this region would be expected to develop and
settle out essentially in the same area as the origin of hatch; an area
which may not be amenable to survival of small juveniles.
The notion of a confined water mass with no component of lateral transport
must not be correct, or the process may not be operative in all
years. Despite the near absence of larvae nearshore in June 1983
(Figure 3.2-2 and 4.1-2), young-of-the-year juveniles were found three
months later in Kvichak Bay about 150 km northeast of the center of
offshore larval abundance (Figure 3.5-6). Juvenile settlement in an
area far removed from the apparent centers of larval hatch in 1983 and
in an area more or less "up current" from central Bristol Bay, argues
that a model of a rigid, cold water mass that guides but does not
exchange with a nearshore counter current is inappropriate for the
observed phenomena in upper layer water.
The relationship between female stocks and the magnitude of recruit
populations has never been well defined for red king crab. Reeves and
Marasco (1980) hypothesized that: 1) high female abundance and full
copulation is not required for maximum recruitment, but; 2) mature
female abundance could decline beyond a level such that recruitment is
reduced. This theoretical female population size is about 20 million
based on their analyses. Armstrong, et al. (1983b) added that the total
population of females in the southeastern Bering Sea may not be so
important a gauge of potential recruitment as is the size of regional
populations where larvae have the greatest chance of settlement to
optimal substrates. As they pointed out from NMFS data, mature female
populations declined in the southeastern Bering Sea between 1977 and
1981 and became less common in nearshore, warmer water habitats. This
trend has continued in 1982 and 1983 as mature female populations have
declined to 55 million and 10 million, respectively, presently a level
below Reeves and Marasco's theoretical recruitment optimum. Nearshore
abundance has further declined such that ovigerous females were rather
rare along the entire North Aleutian Shelf from Unimak Island to Kvichak
387