Substrate preferences and redistribution of blue king crab Paralithodes platypus glaucothoe and first crab on natural substrates in the laboratory

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Abstract

Despite the importance of blue king crab (BKC) to the Bering Sea fishery, there has been no detailed study of juvenile habitat preferences. Such information is critical for understanding life history and for development of stock enhancement programs. The aims of this study were to determine the natural substrata that glaucothoe prefer to settle on, and whether they or subsequent crab 1 stage (C1) redistribute to different habitats over time. A laboratory experiment was performed in 24 round containers divided in four equal quadrants each filled with one of the following natural substrata: beach sand, gravel, shells and cobble. Containers were assigned to 8 groups of 3 replicates each and were kept at ~ 6–8 °C. Twenty five glaucothoe were released in each container on day 0, and one group of three replicates was removed for examination at each of the following intervals: 24 h, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49 days. Numbers of swimming and settled specimens on each substrate and period were recorded. Glaucothoe began to settle immediately after being released since no swimming larvae were found during any sampling periods. Substrata complexity was important for the habitat selection and distribution of blue king crab glaucothoe and crab 1 stage. During the glaucothoe stage, beach sand was rejected and cobble, shell and gravel were chosen equally. After glaucothoe molted to crab 1 stage and became bigger, animals preferred cobble and shell instead of gravel and beach sand. Understanding habitat selection is useful not only for management of crab populations, but also for assessing the potential of various habitats for stock enhancement of blue king crabs.

Introduction

Recruitment of many marine decapod crustaceans is a complex process that involves the transition from a planktonic larval to a benthic juvenile phase. During this transition many factors (e.g., current, tides, salinity, temperature, settling behavior, cannibalism, predation, competition, etc.) (Sulkin and Epifanio, 1984, Forward, 1990, Phillips et al., 1991, Fernández et al., 1993, Hasek and Rabalais, 2001, Heck et al., 2001, Moksnes et al., 2003, Stevens, 2003, Van Montfrans et al., 2003) may affect recruitment success and significantly reduce the number of individuals that survive to adulthood (Wahle and Steneck, 1991, Rabalais et al., 1995). This demographic bottleneck effect is of special relevance for fisheries management and aquaculture (Wahle and Steneck, 1991, Rabalais et al., 1995). For example, the fishery quota for rock lobsters Panulirus cygnus in western Australia is based on the abundance of settled puerulus larvae measured 3 and 4 years earlier (Caputi et al., 2003).

Among factors that affect decapod recruitment, postlarval settlement behavior is important for the selection of an adequate substratum that provides shelter and food during critical early juvenile stages. Postlarval stages actively select substrata on which to settle before they undergo metamorphosis to the first juvenile instar (Wahle and Steneck, 1992, Stevens, 2003, Van Montfrans et al., 2003). Moreover, some species are able to delay metamorphosis in absence of suitable substratum (O'Connor, 1991, Harvey, 1993). In some species, such as Petrolisthes cinctipes (Jensen, 1991) and Uca pugilator (O'Connor, 1993), postlarvae select a settlement substrate occupied by adult conspecifics. Postlarvae may also orient toward nursery areas in response to chemical cues, as demonstrated for Callinectes sapidus (Forward Jr. et al., 2003). Decapod postlarvae often select structurally complex habitats for settlement, including those of American lobster Homarus americanus (Botero and Atema, 1982), Dungeness crab Cancer magister (Fernández et al., 1993), and red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus (Stevens and Kittaka, 1998, Stevens, 2003, Stevens and Swiney, 2005).

Blue king crab Paralithodes platypus Brandt, 1850 (BKC) is an important commercially harvested crustacean that occurs in isolated populations around Alaska, as well as the western Pacific Ocean near Japan and Russia. Commercial fisheries for BKC were developed around the Pribilof Islands and St. Matthew Island during the 1960's and reached their peak harvest during the 1980's with annual landings of ~ 4500 t valued at US$ 9.6–25.6 million. Afterwards, the BKC fishery declined until it was closed for two periods (1988–1994 and 1995–2002), and was finally declared overfished in 2002 (NPFMC, 2002).

Blue king crab have a biennial spawning cycle (Jensen and Armstrong, 1989, Stevens et al., 2008b). During spring, females molt, mate, and extrude eggs which develop for approximately one year before hatching. Larvae hatch in late winter or early spring and develop through four pelagic zoeal stages, followed by a benthic postlarval (glaucothoe) stage which settles on the bottom before metamorphosis to the first juvenile crab (C1) stage (Sato, 1958, Hoffman, 1968).

Blue king crab distribution and habitat preference is related to their life history phase. Adult female BKC live primarily in rocky nearshore areas, whereas males tend to be farther offshore (Blau, 2000). Juveniles (< 1 year old) occur in depths from 40 to 60 m in a habitat consisting of a mixture of dead but intact bivalve and snail shells, which usually occurred in pockets among rock, cobble, or gravel habitats (Armstrong et al., 1985). Despite the importance of the BKC fishery, little is known about the settlement habitat and distribution of glaucothoe and young-of-the-year-juveniles. This study was conducted to determine whether blue king crab glaucothoe exhibit a preference for one of four natural substrata commonly found at the Pribilof Islands and if the first crab stage redistributes among those substrata.

Section snippets

Animals

Adult female and male BKC were collected near St. Paul Island, at approximately 57° N, 169° 30' W in the eastern Bering Sea by trawls during July 2003, and by pots in October 2003 and July 2004. Crabs were wrapped in wet burlap and shipped in insulated containers to the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center (KFRC) in Kodiak, Alaska. Crabs were maintained in an 8000-L tank containing filtered running seawater at 6 °C and fed twice weekly ad libitum with a combination of squid (Loligo spp.), herring (

Results

Hatching to first glaucothoe duration was 37.6 ± 0.5 days and survival rate of blue king crab larvae was 83.7 ± 5.1%. Water temperature increased from 5.6 to 8.3 °C (mean 7.2 ± 0.9 °C) over the course of the experiment. A total of 675 glaucothoe were released into the aquaria, and 4.4 and 24.1% died during the glaucothoe and C1 stages, respectively. No glaucothoe were observed swimming during any observation periods, so that the category was removed from analysis.

Blue king crab glaucothoe preferred

Discussion

Blue king crab glaucothoe actively select complex natural substrata for settlement. Our results suggest that BKC glaucothoe prefer cobble, broken shell and gravel equally and avoid sand as a substrate. This selection pattern may be an adaptive behavior that reduces mortality rates by predation, since complex habitats have a high fraction of interstitial space that offers shelter to glaucothoe and first juvenile stages (Stevens and Swiney, 2005). Selection of structurally complex habitats has

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to S. Persselin, S. Van Sant and K. Swiney for laboratory assistance and to those people from the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center (KFRC) and the Fishery Industrial Technology Center (FITC) for their friendly relationship with MCR and FT. This project was supported by grant N° R0507 from the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) to CLB and BGS. We also wish to thank the University of Alaska Sea Grant Program for supplementary funding. MCR and FT thank to Consejo Federal Pesquero

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    Current Address: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC), Houssay 200, V9410CAB, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

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    Current Address: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, School of Marine Science and Technology, 706 S. Rodney French Blvd., New Bedford, MA, 02740.

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    Current Address: Biological Sciences Department, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, Alaska, 99508.

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