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Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

Vol. 53 - Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

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8.0 POSSIBLE OIL IMPACTS ON DECAPOD LARVAE IN THE<br />

SOUTHEASTERN BERING SEA WITH EMPHASIS ON THE ST. GEORGE BASIN<br />

This two-year study of population dynamics of decapod larvae has<br />

drawn on six years' worth of zooplankton samples to determine spatial <strong>and</strong><br />

temporal variation in distribution <strong>and</strong> abundance, in order to predict<br />

the possible impacts of oil development on this most sensitive lifehistory<br />

stage.<br />

Other factors of general biology have been elucidated;<br />

for example, the time <strong>and</strong> synchrony of hatch <strong>and</strong> its interannual variability,<br />

rate of larval development <strong>and</strong> time in the water column, molt<br />

frequency, <strong>and</strong>, in the case of commercial species targeted in surveys,<br />

the relationship between distribution of benthic female stocks <strong>and</strong><br />

centers of larval abundance.<br />

In many respects however, the data are incomplete, a shortcoming<br />

that has prompted over the past 1.5 years recommendations <strong>and</strong> proposals<br />

for additional research.<br />

Some of the proposed research is now ongoing<br />

(spring/summer 1983) as studies at the Pribilof Isl<strong>and</strong>s on blue king <strong>and</strong><br />

Erimacrus crab biology <strong>and</strong> on red king crab along the North Aleutian<br />

Shelf. These investigations should add substantial information on<br />

critical habitat requirements of the species <strong>and</strong> allow an assessment of<br />

the relative sensitivity of such habitat to oil impact.<br />

This last chapter is used to discuss scenarios of oil mishaps in<br />

the southeastern Bering Sea <strong>and</strong> consequences to pelagic larvae of several<br />

taxa.<br />

This will be done by first reviewing several models of water<br />

797

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