Geoduck clams
(Panopea abrupta) dominate the biomass of benthic infaunal
communities in many parts of Puget Sound, Washington, and support
an important commercial fishery (Goodwin and Pease 1989). Since 1971,
divers have commercially fished geoducks in Washington by individually
extracting them from the substrate with high-pressure water jets.
Various crab species, including the large and commercially important
Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) are common on many geoduck
beds north of Vashon Island in Puget Sound (unpublished Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife [WDFW] dive survey data). Recreational
crab pot fishing also occurs on some of these geoduck beds, and some
crab fishers have complained that their crab fishing success declines
drastically following commercial geoduck harvest.
The objective
of this study was to determine if there was a significant effect of
commercial geoduck fishing on Dungeness crab fishing catch-per-unit-effort
(CPUE). We sampled crabs using baited pots at one site before, during,
and after commercial geoduck fishing. Concurrently, we sampled crabs
at a nearby unfished site. Both sites were sampled 20 times over a
period of 4.6 years. Specifically, we wanted to determine if significant
changes in crab CPUE occurred following geoduck fishing in the treatment
site, and if any such changes could be attributed to geoduck fishing.
