Dungeness Crab

Dungeness crab catch records along the coasts of northern California, Oregon, and Washington covary in a cyclic pattern with a period of 9 to 10 years. Spring wind stress in a southward direction is correlated with crab catch along this coast at lags of 4 to 5 years. This time lag corresponds to the time required for growth from the larval phase to the size caught in the fishery. Computed autocorrelations show that wind stress is itself cyclic with a period of 9 to 10 years.

• More information on Crab population cycles
  • Johnson, D. F., L. W. Botsford, R. D. Methot, Jr., and T. C. Wainwright. 1986. Wind stress and cycles in dungeness crab (Cancer magister) catch off California, Oregon, and Washington. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 43(4):838-845. Abstract
  • Botsford, L.W. 1986. Effects of environmental forcing on age-structured populations: Northern California dungeness crab (Cancer magister) as an example. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 43:2345-2352. Abstract
• to download 1950-1990 Catch data-mouse down and then select 'save as' Data
  • Comma Separated Text
  • Microsoft Excel 5.0 Workbook (txt-tab file)

Loo Botsford
Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology
University of California
Davis, California 95616
USA

lwbotsford@ucdavis.edu

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