Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

11 and 12 (Figs. 3.11, 3.12). Too few samples were taken in strata 9
and 10 on which to base any sort of interannual comparison of larval
abundance.
frequency
Only the area along the NAS was sampled with enough
to compare certain years and, to a lesser extent, areas.
Two new strata, I and II, are shown in Figure 3.12 that divide the NAS
region into an east and west sector at 162° W near Black Hills.
These
strata more realistically encompass major areas of king crab hatch, and
thereby permit limited spatial and temporal comparisons of distribution
and abundance.
Red King Crab:
Distribution of red king crab larvae based on data of
this project (1976-1981) is in accord with results of a 1970-1971
survey conducted by Haynes (1974) who also found larvae to be relatively
nearshore along the NAS into Bristol Bay. Unfortunately, the
survey patterns of most years between 1976 and 1981 were largely
focused offshore over the outer and middle shelves and, as a consequence,
relatively few samples were taken over the apparent spawning
habitat of P. camtschatica. Figure 3.11 shows that only about 13
samples over six years were collected near the 50 m isobath from Unimak
Island to Port Moller, and only three fell shoreward of this depth.
In
the years of best spatial coverage, 11% to 23% of samples sorted had
king crab larvae (Table 3.1).
However, this percentage range is even
less in the case of red king crab since a number of samples were positive
for blue king crab near the Pribilof Islands.
Further, about half
of all positive stations had larval densities of less than 500/100 m 2
(Table 3.1) which was the lowest numerical category used to quantify
558