- Crabs can be found in all the oceans of the world
- they vary in size from a tiny pea crab, to up to 4 meters
- they communicate with each other by drumming or waving their pinchers or claws
- they fight to get the best hiding holes in seaside caves
- they are omnivores eating algae, worms, bacteria, fungi and crustaceans
- females brood 1000’s of embryos under her tail for up to a year
- the larvae settle to the ocean floor and grow into little crabs
- in some places of the world they are eaten whole
- Alaska has 3 main commercial crab species, blue, red and golden king crab.
- the red and king settle on the ocean floor at 90-100 feet and the golden can settle and grow at a whooping 300 feet below sea level
- a crabs skeleton is its shell and therefore in order to grow it often sheds it and grows a new one
- some king crabs can live as along as 20-30 years
- crab is very versatile and can be cooked in soups, curries, simple eaten plain or made into fish cakes.
Because Alaskan crabs have been so heavily fished over the years their is a special project at the University called the King Crab reasearch program.It is trying to grow and hatch larvae and then release them back into the wild to replenish stocks. Be sure to check out the projects website for video clips on the progress.
References:
- http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/shellfsh/kingcrab.php
- http://seagrant.uaf.edu/index.html, the site has you tube clips explaining the project
By Rebecca Subbiah