Growth per Molt of Snow Crab in the Eastern Bering Sea

Abstract

AbstractThe growth per molt of snow crab Chionoecetes opilio in the eastern Bering Sea is poorly known, primarily because snow crabs are difficult to sample during their spring molting period due to the presence of sea ice. To provide better estimates of growth per molt for the stock assessment model used to manage the snow crab fishery, a study was conducted to collect juvenile crabs with a bottom trawler and return them to holding facilities at Dutch Harbor and Kodiak, Alaska. Since relatively few of these crabs subsequently molted, these data were augmented with molting data collected by two previous, unpublished studies. Based on a total of 35 observations, snow crabs grew according to the following premolt (PRMW) and postmolt (POMW) carapace width relationships: POMW = −4.00 + 1.46(PRMW), where PRMW < 36.1 mm, and POMW = 48.83 + 1.17(PRMW − 36.1), where PRMW ≥ 36.1 mm.Received July 23, 2012; accepted September 13, 2012