Efficiency and catch dynamics of collapsible square and conical pots used in the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) fishery

We compared the capture efficiency and catch dynamics of collapsible square and conical pots used in resource assessment and harvesting of red king crabs (Paralithodes camtschaticus [Tilesius, 1815]) in the Barents Sea. After two days of soaking, square pots caught three times as many crabs as conical pots, and their catches consisted of a higher proportion of male crabs and male crabs larger than 160 mm carapace length compared to the catches in the conical pots. Catches in the square pots did not increase as soak times were increased beyond two days, which indicates equilibrium between the rate of entries into and the rate of exits from the pots. Catches in conical pots, however, increased with increasing soak times up to eight days, the longest soak time examined in this study. These findings demonstrate the higher efficiency of square pots and the importance of understanding catch dynamics when making population assessments based on catchper-unit-of-effort data. The favorable catch characteristics and handling properties of the collapsible square pot may make this pot design suitable for other crab fisheries, as well.

Daily rainfall along the United States Pacific Coast appears to conform to a square-root normal probability distribution

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): As part of a study of climatic influences on landslide initiation, a statistical analysis of long-term (>40 years) records of daily rainfall from 24 Pacific coastal stations, from San Diego to Cape Flattery, disclosed an unexpected result - the square root of the daily rainfall closely approximates a normal distribution function. ... This paper illustrates the use of the square-root-normal distribution to analyze variations in precipitation along the mainland United States Pacific Coast with examples of orographic enhancement, rain shadows, and increase in precipitation frequency with geographic latitude.