Leah Zacher with Red king crab.
You have probably seen the displays of long, spikey, king crab legs on ice at the grocery store – generally at exorbitant prices – and perhaps on special occasions, you’ve had these succulent legs dipped in butter. However, have you ever wondered what these legs were up to when they were out in the ocean attached to a crab? As a fisheries biologist studying crabs with NOAA, it is my job to figure out what these tasty crab are doing before they end up on our plates. In Alaska’s Bristol Bay red king crabs have been fished (and studied) for about a century, yet we still know very little about when, where, and why crabs move across the ocean floor. Yet crabs can move a lot when they want to – there has even been a report of a crab moving 13 km (8 miles) in a single day! That’s a lot for an animal the size of a cantaloupe, that has to walk on six gangly legs.
Bristol Bay red king crab occur north of the Alaska Peninsula, primarily within the area outlined in black. The red box and gray lined areas are closed to bottom trawling to protect red king crab.
Red king crab.
