Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

that are killed by oil north of Unimak Island in late April could not be
replaced by other first stage zoeae hatched later in the same area
(although they may be replaced by larvae also hatched in April and
subsequently transported to the affected area).
An exception to this statement, is the observation that offshore larvae
in the 50-70 m central Bristol Bay area were a cohort which may have
hatched about three weeks later than those nearshore. Again, it is not
known if this population adds to nearshore juvenile recruitment and in
so doing, could mitigate the loss of nearshore larvae to oil pollution.
Young Juveniles
An important but poorly studied life history stanza in the southeastern
Bering Sea is newly settled juveniles up to two years old. Their
susceptibility to oil pollution may be very high, in part, because of
highly restricted distribution in critical but scarce habitat. Very
young juvenile king crabs (less than two years old) in the Kodiak region
prefer rocky, cobble habitat that affords shelter from predators (Feder
1978;, Jewett and Powell 1981). Very little habitat of this type exists
along the NAS (Michel, et al. 1982) and young-of-the-year (0+) juveniles
that settle on open bottom are probably vulnerable to heavy predation.
Thus, any habitat that offers protection to young crabs is critical to
benthic survival. During an intensive search for 0+ and 1+ juvenile
king crabs along the NAS in June, August and October 1982, the only
specimens of this size/age category were taken around Amak Island off
Izembek Lagoon (W. Pearson, Battelle Northwest, pers. comm.)
It was the apparent scarcity of 0+ and 1+ juveniles during the 1982
cruises that led OCSEAP to fund this more systematic and broadscale
survey in 1983. During all three cruises conducted during the present
study, juveniles were patchily distributed and were associated with
rather specific substrates that apparently afford shelter (Section 3.4).
Areas off Port Moller, Cape Seniavin, Port Heiden, and in Kvichak and
414