from the North Pacific fishery-observer database (NORPAC), to determine the effect of trawling on the population collapse. When the U.S. commercial harvest of the legal male red king crab reached its peak in 1980 after a 10-year increase, a trawl fishery for Yellowfin sole was introduced. The new trawl fishery was located in the same area as the Bristol Bay Pot Sanctuary, which was dissolved in 1976. The pot sanctuary was introduced to protect the brood stock of female king crab which congregate in Bristol Bay to lay their fertilized eggs. During the active years of the pot sanctuary the only catch allowed in the area was male red king crab of regulation size caught in crab pots. During the first year of the joint U.S.-Soviet Yellowfin sole fishery, 1980, the bycatch rates for red king crab in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands increased by 371% over the average rates from 1977-1979. The following year, in 1981, the bycatch rate increased again another 235% over the 1980 rate, with most of the bycatch being mature females. As more unmonitored domestic trawls, trawls where bycatch is not reported, began in the area that was formerly the sanctuary, anecdotal reports of "red bags," trawl bags with the cod-end, the end the fish are retained, plugged with red king crab began. During this time the percentage of males in the population jumped from 25% in 1981 and 16% in 1982 to 54% in 1985 and 65% in 1986. Due to the sudden change in the sex ratio, Dew and McConnaughey concluded that sequential, sex-specific sources of fishing mortality were at work. Analyzing the findings of their study, Dew and McConnaughey determined a strong correlation between trawling activity and the sex ratio change as well as the total population decline. Dew and McConnaughey hypothesize that since female crabs return to and linger in Bristol Bay to lay pre-fertilized eggs, the trawling in the area disproportionally impacted the female population more than the male population and contributed to the change in sex ratio, as crabs do not die after they spawn. To account for the total change in population, they concluded the bycatch in trawls of female crabs with fertilized eggs contributed to the overall population decline, as less crab eggs were laid. Dew and McConnaughey noted that dissolving the Bristol Bay Pot Sanctuary exposed a vulnerable time in the red king crab's mating