''Lithodes aequispinus'', the golden king crab, also known as the brown king crab, is a

king crab King crabs are a taxon of 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 (''Paralithodes camtscha ...

species native to the

North Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Golden king crabs are primarily found in the

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...

and waters nearer to

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

; their range also extends to the

Russian far east The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, albeit with a less dense population. Golden king crabs are the smallest of the three commercially viable Alaskan king crab species with an average weight between 5 and 8 lbs(2.3 - 3.6 kg); the other two species being the

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

and

red king crab The red king crab (''Paralithodes camtschaticus''), also called Kamchatka crab or Alaskan king crab, is a species of king crab native to the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. It was introduced to the Barents Sea. It grows to a leg span of , and is ...

s. Golden king crabs were historically caught incidentally in red king crab fisheries, but the first commercial landing took place in 1975; in 1981, the targeted pot-fishing method, a hybrid fishing method specifically for golden king crab, was developed.

Description

The golden king crab is a North Pacific king crab, a decapod

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

. They have five pairs of legs, the front pair carries their claws. Golden king crabs get their name from the

orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

to golden hue of their shells, which are mostly made of calcium. Like other king crabs, golden king crabs are large and have long, spiny legs; compared with blue and red king crabs, though, they are smaller by a great deal, with a typical weight between 5 and 8 lb, and notably thinner legs. The golden king crab also has a distinctive

carapace A carapace is a Dorsum (biology), dorsal (upper) section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods, such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates, such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tor ...

, which typically has five to nine spines on the mid-dorsal plate. Unrelated to their size, golden king crabs generally have the lowest meat-fill in proportion to their bodies compared with other Alaskan king crabs. They also have a fan-shaped tail flap located on the rear and underside of their bodies; adult female crabs brood embryos underneath their tail flaps. Although ''L. aequispinus'' may be referred to as either "golden king crab" or "brown king crab", the US

Code of Federal Regulations In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the United States. ...

Title 21 Food and Drugs part 102 section 102.50 declared that the appropriate market name for its product is “brown king crabmeat”, but as of November 2017. this was overridden by section 774 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, which established the proper market name as “golden king crabmeat”. Manufacturers and sellers of products containing ''L. aequispinus'' were granted until January 1, 2020, to make the appropriate change to product labels.

Distribution and habitat

The primary range of the golden king crab is around the Aleutian Islands and waters surrounding southern Alaska and British Columbia, as well as the Russian far east and Japan to a lesser degree. Substantial Alaskan populations of golden king crabs occur off of the Pribilof and

Shumagin Islands The Shumagin Islands (Unangan: ''Qagiiĝun''; russian: Острова Шумагина) are a group of 20 islands in the Aleutians East Borough south of the mainland of Alaska, United States, at 54°54'–55°20' North 159°15'–160°45' West. ...

Shelikof Strait Shelikof Strait (russian: Пролив Шелихова) is a strait on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Alaska between the Alaska mainland to the west and Kodiak and Afognak islands to the east. Shelikof Strait separates the mainland ...

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound (Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Tr ...

, and the lower Chatham Strait in Southeastern Alaska. Golden king crabs typically inhabit waters ranging from 300 to 1000 meters in depth. They usually avoid open

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...

substrates, instead favoring complex sloping and rocky habitats, often relying on boulders or structure forming sessile

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

such as

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...

for

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

. Adult golden king crabs exhibit an annual deep and back migratory pattern during which they travel to shallow waters in the late winter to molt and mate. This is followed by a return to deeper waters, where they feed and exist for most of the year. Golden king crabs often occupy deeper waters than red king crabs; within their geographical range they are the most abundant species of crab.

Reproduction and lifecycle

Golden king crabs exhibit 20-month asynchronous reproductive cycles during which female crabs typically brood 10,000 to 30,000 eggs underneath their fan-shaped tail flaps for roughly a year. Golden king crabs have the largest eggs of the three commercially viable king crab species. Offspring emerge as swimming larvae, but are weak and susceptible to underwater currents. Throughout their transformation into adulthood, golden king crabs undergo several physical transformations via molting. Offspring eventually settle at the bottom of the ocean in waters with a usual minimum depth of 300 ft. Golden king crabs are typically classified as juveniles in their first few years. After reaching sexual maturity around 4 to 5 years of age, they are classified as adults. Golden king crabs molt throughout their entire lives, and juveniles do so more frequently than adults. Due to reproductive necessity, females molt more often than their male counterparts, which can keep their shells for one to two years at a time. Throughout their lives, golden king crabs exhibit an annual offshore “deep and back” migrational pattern, which involves male and female crabs arriving in shallow water in late winter and early spring to molt their shells and mate. When embryos hatch in late spring, they then migrate to deeper waters for feeding, wherein they are not typically found with crabs of the opposite sex nor with red or blue king crabs. Golden king crabs consume a wide variety of species, including worms, clams, mussels, snails, sea stars, urchins, sand dollars, barnacles, algae, sponges, and even other crabs and crustaceans. Many crabs have a strong sense of smell; the golden king crab uses this to locate food. Golden king crabs are also preyed on by various fishes such as Pacific cod, halibut, and yellowfin sole, as well as sea otters. Nemertean worms have also been found to consume the embryos of golden king crabs.

Fisheries

Due to their small size, golden king crabs are not as popular as blue or red king crab, but they are widely fished throughout Alaska, particularly in the Aleutian Islands. In comparison with other commercially viable king crabs, golden king crabs are noted as being similar in flavor, but perhaps milder and sweeter. To protect the golden king crab stock in Alaska, several regulations have been established. Crab fishermen may only catch and harvest males of a legal size, that being 7 cm or larger laterally across the carapace. Fishing also must not coincide with mating and molting periods. After the North Pacific Council approved stock assessments of golden king crab, state managers were allowed the authority to increase crab fishing quotas by the Alaska Board of Fish. As of 2015, in coordination with the industry, the state has conducted numerous surveys of golden king crab stock. As of August 2018, quotas for golden king crab fishing rose for the first time in 20 years. This allowed the taking of 3.9 million pounds of golden king crab east of Adak island, and 2.5 million pounds west of Adak, increases of 18 and 11%, respectively. In the following season, as of August 2019, quotas for golden king crab harvest were again increased, allowing 4.3 million pounds to be taken east of Atka island, and 2.9 million west of Atka. The raised quota represented respective increases of 12 and 15% since the previous season. The 2019 golden king crab season is the second for which the government's new stock assessment model was used. The new stock assessment model determines seasonal crab stock more thoroughly than previous methods and is unique to golden king crab.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4486247 King crabs Edible crustaceans Commercial crustaceans Crustaceans of North America Crustaceans of the United States Fauna of Alaska