Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

of the North Aleutian Shelf, particularly Izenbek Lagoon where it is an
important consumer of eelgrass (Zostra marina) production (McRoy 1966;
Barsdate et al. 1974).
Erimacrus and Telmessus are food items of secondary importance to
other animals of the Bering Sea.
Lowry et al. (1981) report that Telmessus
is often eaten by the bearded seal and they cite Cunningham's (1969)
statement that Erimacrus is occasionally eaten by the red king crab.
Kurata (1963b) described the 5 zoeal stages and megalops stage of
both species from the Sea of Japan (Table 5.2).
Unfortunatley, most of
the text is in Japanese and it is not known if it contains other valuable
life history information.
5.1.2 Cancridae
Cancer magister, currently of commercial importance in the Gulf of
Alaska, has been reported to inhabit the Bering Sea (Garth 1958), but
species lists prepared from more recent surveys of this area (Pereyra et
al. 1976; Feder and Jewett 1980) do not include this species.
Trawl
work aboard the Miller Freeman in June 1982 netted several ovigerous
female C. magister north of False Pass (D. Armstrong, personal observation).
Dungeness crabs inhabit bays, estuaries, and the open ocean to
depths greater than 50 m, from Amchitka Island on the Aleutian chain to
Baja California.
In British Columbia both males and females reach sexual
maturity after twelve molts, two years after metamorphosis from the
larval stage.
Female growth then becomes slower relative to male, and
females rarely attain widths greater than 165 mm, while males may grow
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