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In Alaska, three species of king crab are caught commercially: the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus, found in Bristol Bay, Norton Sound, and the Kodiak Archipelago), blue king crab (Paralithodes platypus, St. Matthew Island and the Pribilof Islands), and golden king crab (Lithodes aequispinus, Aleutian Islands).
The red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), also called Kamchatka crab or Alaskan king crab, is a species of king crab native to cold waters in the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas, but also introduced to the Barents Sea. It grows to a leg span of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), and is heavily targeted by fisheries.
The phylogeny of king crabs as hermit crabs who underwent secondary calcification and left their shell has been suspected since the late 1800s. [4] They are believed to have originated during the Early Miocene in shallow North Pacific waters, where most king crab genera – including all Hapalogastrinae – are distributed and where they exhibit a high amount of morphological diversity.
Chionoecetes opilio, a species of snow crab, also known as opilio crab or opies, is a predominantly epifaunal crustacean native to shelf depths in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and north Pacific Ocean.
Lithodes aequispinus, the golden king crab, also known as the brown king crab, is a king crab species native to the North Pacific. [2] Golden king crabs are primarily found in the Aleutian Islands and waters nearer to Alaska and British Columbia; their range also extends to the Russian far east and Japan, albeit with a less dense population.
Billions of crabs ultimately starved to death, devastating Alaska’s fishing industry in the years that followed. Molts and shells from snow crab sit on a table in June at the Alaska Fisheries ...
Common names for crabs in this genus include "queen crab" (in Canada) and "spider crab". The generic name Chionoecetes means snow (χιών, chion) inhabitant (οἰκητης, oiketes); [3] opilio means shepherd, and C. opilio is the primary species referred to as snow crab.
Over 13,228,000 pounds (6,000 t) of blue king crabs were caught during 1981, the peak for blue king crab fisheries as well as the year after red king crab fisheries peaked. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] The Pribilof Island harvest by the United States peaked in 1980 at 10,935,000 lb (4,960 t) and was closed in 1988 due to population decline, [ 19 ] then again ...