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Title: King Crab Information
Categories: Seafood Info
Yield: 1 Info file
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Originally called "Alaska King Crab", the primary source of king crab today is Russia. This species is widely distributed along the continental slopes of the North Pacific and Bering Sea from Vancouver Island to Norton Sound in Alaska, and in the Western North Pacific from the Kamchatka penninsula south to the Sea of Okhotsk.
They are not true crabs, such as the Dungeness and blue crabs, but are related to hermit crabs. They can live up to ten years or more and can grow to considerable size: the largest king crab on record was caught off Alaska's Kodiak Island, weighed 25 pounds, and had a leg span of over six feet. The average market-sized king crab, though, is about six pounds.
King crab are captured in large baited pots fished from sturdy steel-hulled vessels of 100 feet and more in length. When the crabs are landed, they are kept alive in a tank aboard the boat. Only live crabs are accepted at the shore plants, and these are cooked and frozen immediately.
From Simply Seafood magazine, Winter 1996.
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