Effects of specifics of Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis feeding in development of gonadal index of sea urchins from the Avachinskaya Bay (South-Eastern Kamchatka) in summer of 2000
Effects of specifics of S. droebachiensis feeding in development of the sea urchin gonad in the Avachinskaya Bay (South-East Kamchatka) were examined. The research was carried out in 2000 at four sampling stations. It is demonstrated, that high values of the gonad index in the station near Mayachniy Cape as due to feeding on the local kelp Agarum clathrus and in the station Bezymyannaya Bay - on Laminaria longipes. Low values of the gonad index were obsered along the west coast of the Avachinskaya Bay (near the rock Babushkin Kamen and Kozak Cape), where the urchins were feeding on unconventional (fragments of crustaceans) or not readily available (red coralline algae) forage, because the food supply was poor.