. The Eastern Bering Sea Shelf : oceanography and resources / edited by Donald W. Hood and John A. Calder . Figure 69-9. Quantitative distribution of the snow crab Chionoecetes opilio in tlie southeastern Bering Sea, 1975-76. Sea, where low water temperatures prevail, sea stars are the dominant macro benthic predators (Feder and Jewett 1978). Neiman (1963) and Moiseev (1964) suggest that annual fluctuation in water temperature, rather than availability of food, may be responsible for the maximum northern distribution of many benthophagic flatfishes. Thus, in years when seawater temperatures ri
. The Eastern Bering Sea Shelf : oceanography and resources / edited by Donald W. Hood and John A. Calder . Figure 69-9. Quantitative distribution of the snow crab Chionoecetes opilio in tlie southeastern Bering Sea, 1975-76. Sea, where low water temperatures prevail, sea stars are the dominant macro benthic predators (Feder and Jewett 1978). Neiman (1963) and Moiseev (1964) suggest that annual fluctuation in water temperature, rather than availability of food, may be responsible for the maximum northern distribution of many benthophagic flatfishes. Thus, in years when seawater temperatures rise sufficiently, flatfish populations invade the rich northern waters and actively compete with sea stars for bivalve resources. Such competition between starry flounders and sea stars in the northern Bering Sea is discussed by Jewett and Feder (1980) (see also Feder and Jewett, 1978). The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is perhaps the greatest bivalve predator in the eastern Bering Sea (Fay, Chapter 48, this volume). Stoker (1977) estimated that walrus take X 10* mt of bivalves annually in the Bristol Bay area alone. Further competition for Bering Sea clam resources may occur if commercial clam harvesting begins (see Hughes and Nelson 1979; Hughes and Bourne, Chapter 67, this volume for a discussion of a potential clam fishery for the Bering Sea). Target species for this proposed fishery would be the Alaska surf clam, Spisula polynyma, also common in the diet of Pacific walrus. The bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus), a species of the northern Bering Sea, also preys on
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