NOAA Technical Memorandum
NMFS-AFSC-187
The 2008 Eastern Bering Sea Continental Shelf Bottom Trawl Survey:
Results for Commercial Crab Species
Abstract
The eastern Bering Sea bottom trawl survey has been conducted annually since 1975 by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Resource Assessment and Conservation Engineering Division. The purpose of this survey is to collect data on the distribution and abundance of crab and groundfish resources in the eastern Bering Sea. These data are used to estimate population abundances for the management of commercially important species in the region. In 2008, 376 standard stations were sampled and an additional 32 stations were resampled in Bristol Bay at the end of the standard survey to adequately account for female red king crab maturity. The 2008 point estimates (± 2 SE) for legal-sized males (millions of crab) of commercial crab stocks in the EBS were as follows:
| |
2007 |
2008 |
| |
|
|
| Bristol Bay District red king crab |
10.5 ± 3.1 |
13.3 ± 5.3 |
| Pribilof District red king crab |
1.2 ± 1.1 |
1.6 ± 1.3 |
| Pribilof District blue king crab |
0.02 ± 0.04 |
0.11 ± 0.08 |
| St. Matthew Island Section blue king crab |
1.7 ± 0.9 |
1.4 ± 0.9 |
| Tanner crab, all Districts |
13.2 ± 7.4 |
12.1 ± 6.8 |
| Snow crab, all Districts |
368.6 ± 75.9 |
495.2 ± 134.8 |
| Snow crab, all Districts > 4.0 inches |
119.7 ± 27.5 |
150.9 ± 61.6 |
| Hair crab, all Districts |
2.3 ± 1.1 |
2.0 ± 0.8 |
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