Red king crab
Paralithodes camtschaticus
The King Crab or King crab ( Paralithodes camtschaticus ), sometimes because of their size also called Monster crab, is a large center cancer from the family of stone and king crabs. Thus, it is not among the crabs in the strict sense. It is considered a delicacy, and is fished extensively.
She came first before only in the northern Pacific ( especially against Japan and Alaska), until it was settled in the north of Europe in the Barents Sea.
Dissemination
In the late 1960s the crab was exposed by Russian researchers in the Barents Sea near Murmansk, where they planned increased greatly. To date, she has advanced to the Norwegian Lofoten. The resettlement action had been passed by the General Secretaries of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin and his successor Nikita Khrushchev in the ways to improve the supply situation in Moscow and Murmansk.
Features
The carapace ( carapace ) of the king crab reaches a size of 25 cm, while it can reach a weight of 10 kg in total. The leg span may be up to 180 cm. King crabs can have different colors, which depend on the food. The most common is the color red, but also blue and brown before coming.
It feeds on almost anything they can find, mainly of seashells, starfish, algae and carrion. King crab must molt in order to grow, because they have an exoskeleton ( external skeleton ). The animals have as decapods ( Decapoda ) five pairs of legs, one of which carries the first shearing, the fifth pair of legs is tucked away in the gill cavity is shortened and has the function of a cleaning brush. The legs grow back when the crabs they lose.
Life
The life expectancy is about 30 years. The females of the crab king lay 400000-500000 eggs. Of which reach about 2 percent adulthood, that is, per female, there are 8,000 to 10,000 offspring. The young animals are hiding in the ground plants until they are large enough. Full-grown king crabs, like many other crabs also cannibalistic assessed. It sometimes happens that many fellows gather for large heap and stack the. Why they do this, but it is not yet clear.
Use
Full-grown king crabs have few natural enemies and were able to spread so rapidly in the Barents Sea and along the Norwegian coast main reason. Because of their palatability, the crab is popular in Russia and Asia. In Norway, is seen therefore similar to the salmon farming potential for management: The crabs are caught and fattened about two months until the desired meat quality and quantity before they are marketed. The crab is fished directly, Norway has therefore adopted protective legislation: Only adult males may be fished.
Criticism
It is often assumed that the animals could trigger an ecological disaster. In December 2010, a group of environmental activists circa 2000 live specimens tipped before the Ministry of Fisheries in Oslo and called for the extermination of the - by the Norwegians sometimes denigrated as " Stalin Crabs " - Animals on the coast of the country. The conservation organization WWF called on the Norwegian government to stop the spread of the animals.
In the German tabloid press is rumored regularly, " the monster " will spread further south and eventually injure bathers on Sylt. However Reputable marine biologists do not participate in such calls. On one hand, the crab has not spread in their original habitat into the warm Pacific Ocean, on the other hand is considered likely (but not yet completely explored ) that certain ( hot water ) microorganisms of the crab make the survival south of central Norway impossible.