King crabs are a taxon of crab-like decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab.
King crabs are generally thought to be derived from hermit crab-like ancestors.
This edible crab is found in the shallow waters. The king crab is one of the largest crabs.
The red king crab, also called Kamchatka crab or Alaskan king crab, is a species of king crab native to the far northern Pacific Ocean, including the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, but also introduced to the Barents Sea.
The red king crab is the largest species of king crab. Males grow larger than females. It was named after the color it turns when it is cooked rather than the color of a living animal, which tends to be more burgundy.
The red king crab is native to the Bering Sea, North Pacific Ocean, around the Kamchatka Peninsula and neighboring Alaskan waters. It was introduced artificially by the Soviet Union into the Murmansk Fjord, Barents Sea, during 1960 to provide a new, and valuable, catch in Europe. The depth at which it can live has much to do with what stage of its lifecycle it is in; newly hatched crab stay in the shallower waters where food and protection are plentiful. They migrate in the winter or early spring to shallower depths for mating, but most of their lives are spent in the deep waters where they feed.
The blue king crab lives near St. Matthew Island, the Pribilof Islands, and the Diomede Islands, Alaska, and there are populations along the coasts of Japan and Russia.
