The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and the Americas. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves. The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian navigator, who, in 1728, was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean.
Hermit crabs are anomuran decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit crab, most of which possess an asymmetric abdomen concealed by a snug-fitting shell. Hermit crabs' soft (non-calcified) abdominal exoskeleton means they must occupy shelter produced by other organisms or risk being defenseless.
Trawling is an industrial method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different species of fishes or sometimes targeted species. Trawls are often called towed gear or dragged gear.
The Japanese spider crab is a species of marine crab and is the biggest one that lives in the waters around Japan. At around 3.7 meters, it has the largest leg-span of any arthropod. The Japanese name for this species is taka-ashi-gani,, literally translating to “tall legs crab”. It goes through three main larval stages along with a prezoeal stage to grow to its great size.
King crabs are decapod crustaceans of the family Lithodidae that are chiefly found in deep waters and are adapted to cold environments. They are composed of two subfamilies: Lithodinae, which tend to inhabit deep waters, are globally distributed, and comprise the majority of the family's species diversity; and Hapalogastrinae, which are endemic to the North Pacific and inhabit exclusively shallow waters. King crabs superficially resemble true crabs but are generally understood to be closest to the pagurid hermit crabs. This placement of king crabs among the hermit crabs is supported by several anatomical peculiarities which are present only in king crabs and hermit crabs. Although some doubt still exists about this hypothesis, king crabs are the most widely quoted example of carcinisation among decapods. Several species of king crabs, especially in Alaskan and southern South American waters, are targeted by commercial fisheries and have been subject to overfishing.
Carcinus maenas is a common littoral crab. It is known by different names around the world. In the British Isles, it is generally referred to as the shore crab, or green shore crab. In North America and South Africa, it bears the name European green crab.
Alaskan king crab fishing is carried out during the fall in the waters off the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. The commercial catch is shipped worldwide. Large numbers of king crab are also caught in Russian and international waters.
The red king crab, 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 Puget Sound king crab, is a species of king crab which inhabits the oceans of the Pacific coast of North America from Alaska to central California. Adults are orange, red and purple in color, while juveniles are either mostly orange or have small blotches of red and purple. They can be recognized by their blunt bumps on their carapace. Puget Sound king crabs are larger than the similar brown box crab, with an average size of 6–10 inches (15–25 cm).
The Alaska pollock or walleye pollock is a marine fish species of the cod genus Gadus and family Gadidae.
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually. The horse crab, Portunus trituberculatus, accounts for one quarter of that total. Other important species include flower crabs, snow crabs (Chionoecetes), blue crabs, edible or brown crabs, Dungeness crab, and mud crabs, each of which provides more than 20,000 tonnes annually.
Paralithodes platypus, the blue king crab, is a species of king crab from cold waters in the North Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas. They are generally smaller than red king crabs.
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. It is a well-known commercial species of Chionoecetes, often caught with traps or by trawling. Seven species are in the genus Chionoecetes, all of which bear the name "snow crab". C. opilio is related to C. bairdi, commonly known as the tanner crab, and other crab species found in the cold, northern oceans.
Neolithodes is a genus of king crabs, in the family Lithodidae. They are found in all major oceans, both in high and low latitudes. Although there are records from water as shallow as 124 m (407 ft) in cold regions, most records are much deeper, typically 700–2,000 m (2,300–6,600 ft), with the deepest confirmed at 5,238 m (17,185 ft). They are fairly large to large crabs that typically are reddish in color and spiny, although the size of these spines varies depending on species.
Paralithodes californiensis, also known as the spiny king crab and the California king crab, is a species of king crab It is closely related to P. rathbuni with the same common names being used for the two and some authorities suggest that they might be conspecific. P. californiensis is found on muddy or rocky bottoms at depths of 145–300 m (476–984 ft) in the Pacific Ocean off southern California.
Neolithodes grimaldii, the porcupine crab, is a species of king crab in the family Lithodidae. This large red crab is found in cold deep waters in the North Atlantic and often caught as a bycatch in fisheries for Greenland turbot. As suggested by its common name, the carapace and legs are covered in long spines.
Paralithodes rathbuni, the spiny king crab or California king crab, is a species of king crab. It is closely related to P. californiensis, with the same common name California king crab being used for the two and some authorities suggest that they might be conspecific. P. rathbuni is found on sandy, muddy or rocky bottoms at depths of 86–380 m (282–1,247 ft) in the Pacific Ocean off California and Baja California.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) in the Arctic is an under researched scientific field. The most recent academic articles about IUU in the Arctic mainly concerns the mid-2000s.
Neolithodes diomedeae is a species of king crab which is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, and the Bellingshausen and Scotia Seas in the Southern Ocean. They occur from 200 to 2,454 m.
Paralithodes brevipes, also known as the spiny king crab and sometimes the brown king crab, is a species of king crab. It has a limited distribution in cold, shallow waters as far south as the coast of Hokkaido, where male-only fishing has damaged the reproductive success of the species, up to as far north as the southwest Bering Sea.
