Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

abundant in strata 6, 11, and 12 in an area near their junction at
eastern Unimak Island and Bechevin Bay (Figure 5.4).
This pattern is
somewhat in accord with NMFS groundfish survey data that shows relatively
low density of female E. isenbeckii throughout the southeastern
Bering Sea, with somewhat greater numbers near Unimak Island and at the
Pribilof Islands (Otto et al. 1982).
Perhaps because few samples were
collected in this latter location the density of larvae at the Pribilofs
was very low (Fig. 5.4).
However, to date there is no definitive information
to indicate important regions of female abundance or larval hatch
but nearshore areas are suspected.
Density:
Mean density ± 1 standard deviation, the range of densities
and the number of stations at which larvae were present for each stratum
are shown in Figure 5.5.
Strata are labeled as to the regime (inner,
middle, and outer shelf; oceanic zone; Alaska coastal and Unimak Island)
in which they are located.
Individual stations sometimes contained fairly
high densities of larvae (in excess of 5,000/100m²), but commonly
numbers were very low, often less than 500/100m² (Figure 5.4).
Average
densities were highest in strata 6 and 11 with over 2,000/100 m². But
the enormous range (83-13,541 larvae/100 m² in stratum 6) and standard
deviations associated with the data reflect the vagaries of interannual
differences in seasonal occurrence and densities of larvae.
Stations
from other strata usually lacked E. isenbeckii larvae or contained them
in low densities of a few hundred/100 m 2 (Figs. 5.4, 5.5; in comparison
with values in excess of 100,000/100 m 2 for Tanner larvae in Sec. 4.0).
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