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Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

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4.5 Potential Effects of Oil <strong>and</strong> Gas Development<br />

Theoretical considerations of potential oil <strong>and</strong> gas development impacts<br />

on marine species have been discussed previously for the St. George<br />

Basin (Hameedi 1982) <strong>and</strong> the North Aleutian Shelf (Thorsteinson 1983) in<br />

the southeastern Bering Sea. Several workshops held at Asilomar,<br />

California (1980) <strong>and</strong> at Anchorage, <strong>Alaska</strong> (1981, 1982) considered the<br />

impact of oil in this region on commercial crustaceans, notably Tanner<br />

crab <strong>and</strong> red <strong>and</strong> blue king crab. Largely as a result of these meetings<br />

at which biological information on the species was summarized in regards<br />

to potential oil impact, shortcomings in available information crucial<br />

for oil impact assessment were identified <strong>and</strong> projects such as the<br />

present study were initiated. Consequently, literature dealing with<br />

potential hydrocarbon impacts on crab <strong>and</strong> shrimp of the southeastern<br />

Bering Sea has been reviewed several times over recent years (Armstrong,<br />

et al. 1981a, 1983a,b; Curl <strong>and</strong> Manen 1982). These reviews have considered<br />

both the physiological/biological sensitivity of crustaceans to<br />

hydrocarbons <strong>and</strong> the ecological vulnerability of selected species. The<br />

following discussion is limited to potential impacts of oil spills.<br />

A consensus that red king crab along the NAS <strong>and</strong> blue king crab around<br />

the Pribilof Isl<strong>and</strong>s are species of high ecological vulnerability<br />

(Armstrong, et al. 1983a) prompted OCSEAP to support research that would<br />

better portray the general ecology of these species (e.g., distribution<br />

<strong>and</strong> abundance over different substrate types), <strong>and</strong> establish links<br />

between the population dynamics <strong>and</strong> year class strength of larvae,<br />

juveniles <strong>and</strong> mature females. As noted by Armstrong, et al. (1983b),<br />

the relative interannual variability in temporal <strong>and</strong> spatial population<br />

dynamics of larvae should be considered in terms of: 1) female stocks<br />

as the origin of hatch; <strong>and</strong> 2) young benthic juveniles as the final<br />

location of pelagic survivors. This theme has been exp<strong>and</strong>ed in the<br />

current study <strong>and</strong> serves as a basis for discussing potential oil impacts<br />

to red king crab in the NAS-Bristol Bay region.<br />

396

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