Bathymetric distribution and abundance of the king crab (chaceon affinis milne Edwards and Bouvier, 1984) off the Canary Island

Abstract

The king crab inhabit waters around the Canary Islands, but it is more common off Gran Canaria and Tenerife Islands, in depths between 300 and 1150 m, beging more abundant in the 600-1000 m range. There were not significant differences between winter and summer in its batimetic distribution and relative abundance. The wider bathymetric distribution was observed off La Gomera island (300-1100 m depth) and Gran Canaria and Tenerife islands (300-1000 m and 500-1150 m depth respectively). However, the higher abundance was always found between 600 and 900 m depth. Off Lanzarote and La Palma islands the bathymetric distribution was lightly reduced (600-1000 and 400-900 m depth respectively). On other hand, significative differences were observed in mean weight distributions, beging heavier and lighthavier specimens caught off Lanzarote and La Gomera islands, respectively. Otherwise, females were more abundant than males in captures, with sex ratios that oscillate between 1:1,4 to 1:1,7, except off La Palma were males were predominant, with a sex ratio 1:0,4.