Catches of Pandalus borealis by surface-to-bottom pot fishing in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, showed that this species was distributed in large numbers throughout the water column at night and suggested a diel vertical migration. The shrimp apparently left the vicinity of the bottom about dusk and returned about dawn; the apparent length of time they were off bottom was directly related to the length of the night. Bottom trawling clearly showed lower availability of P. borealis on bottom at night than during the day. Catches of shrimp by pot fishing and trawling indicated that small P. borealis have a greater tendency to migrate vertically than the larger individuals.

Size, growth, and density have been studied for North American Pacific coast sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, S. droebachiensis, S. polyacanthus, Mesocentrotus (Strongylocentrotus) franciscanus, Lytechinus pictus, Centrostephanus coronatus, and Arbacia stellata by various workers at diverse sites and for varying lengths of time from 1956 to present. Numerous peer-reviewed publications have used some of these data but some data have appeared only in graduate theses or the gray literature. There also are data that have never appeared outside original data sheets. Motivation for studies has included fisheries management and environmental monitoring of sewer and power plant outfalls as well as changes associated with disease epidemics. Studies also have focused on kelp restoration, community effects of sea otters, basic sea urchin biology, and monitoring. The data sets presented here are a historical record of size, density, and growth for a common group of marine invertebrates in intertidal and nearshore environments that can be used to test hypotheses concerning future changes associated with fisheries practices, shifts of predator distributions, climate and ecosystem changes, and ocean acidification along the Pacific Coast of North America and islands of the north Pacific. No copyright restrictions apply. Please credit this paper when using the data.

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