Foodie cold knowledge: crayfish is not shrimp, king crab is not crab! But it doesn't matter, it's delicious.
The market price of king crab is worthy of its name, really expensive, a king crab at least 500 yuan starting price.
If you tell your foodie friends that this product is a notorious invasive species, you may be even more excited!
Delicious king crab
Isn't that what makes foodies save the world?
That can not reduce the price of king crab, anyway, are invasive species, eat it is doing good to accumulate virtue.
Compared with the "shame of invasive animals" such as crayfish, king crabs have really conquered the city, swept across Europe, and invaded Antarctica.
King crab cuisine
Calling "crabs" is not crabs
Why isn't king crab a crab? It all starts with its genealogy.
We often say that the crab is a general term for the decapod crab family, and the family tree of the king crab belongs to the decapod stone crab family.
This relationship is equivalent to the fact that monkeys are primates, and we humans are primates, and the time of separation is at least tens of millions of years, so there is nothing wrong with king crabs not being crabs.
King crabs are not crabs
Biologists always like to call large animals "emperor" and "king", such as the largest penguin is the emperor penguin, and the second largest penguin is the king penguin.
King crab a crab monopoly on the word "emperor", it can be seen that its size is really large.
The king crab looks like a spider because all its legs are well-proportioned, even the front claws are very handsome.
However, unfolding its feet, the span can reach 1.8 meters, a king crab weighs 3 to 4 kilograms, the largest individual has 10 kilograms, it can really be described as "crab is so big that it can't be stewed in one pot"!
Huge king crab
When it comes to king crab, everyone will think that its hometown is in Norway, after all, the king crab on the market is said to be imported from Norway.
When Norwegians know, they will say that king crabs are produced by them, but not native to Norway.
The true home of king crabs is already little known, in the off-the-beaten-path Bering Sea and Alaskan waters.
The reason why I think of Norway when I mention king crabs is because Norway is one of the countries most invaded by king crabs, and selling king crabs is their original self-help.
So how did the king crab in Alaska go to Europe? This is also thanks to a scientific research activity of the Soviet Union Old Iron.
Norwegian king crab
"Emperor" invasion
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union went on a scientific expedition to the Kamchatka Peninsula and caught samples of king crabs, which he brought back to study.
The ship crossed the Arctic Ocean, and while passing through the Barents Sea, some king crabs "escaped", causing them to be landed in the Barents Sea.
The Barents Sea is relatively close to Norway, so they also successfully invaded the Norwegian sea, and the Norwegian people at this time were still eating grouse and singing, completely unaware that such a cruel role had come from their own sea.
Relying on its strong reproductive ability, king crabs soon branched out in this cold sea and established their own empire.
King crabs prey on crabs
King crab is a typical cold-zone organism, mature relatively late, to grow up to 4 years old to reproduce, a time to lay more than 10,000 eggs, of course, not every one can grow up safely, the natural hatching rate of king crab is 16,000: 80,000.
However, the king crab has a shortcoming, that is, in its 30-year lifespan, only 4 years can participate in breeding.
That is to say, a king crab matures at the age of 4, cannot give birth at the age of 8, and the remaining 22 years are spent alone by a crab.
The size of an adult king crab
Originally, the Alaskan and Bering seas where king crabs lived had many of their natural enemies, but in the waters of Norway, they were invincible for a moment.
Even if it can only be born for 4 years, the number of king crabs has increased tremendously based on the amount of these 4 years.
When the Norwegians went out to sea, they found out how there was a strange crab in their sea.
The scientific name of the king crab that invaded Norway should be called Kamchatka stone crab, which belongs to the genus of stone crab in the stone crab family, and the king crab has some relatives, but it is not as big as it is.
One of the home of the king crab in the Kamchatka Peninsula
King crabs have a very heterogeneous diet, they can eat food they can eat, live on the bottom of the sea, can withstand 850 meters of water pressure.
The Norwegian sea is rich in aquatic resources, and soon these became the revolving restaurants of king crab, which it feasted on in Norway.
The Norwegians really couldn't stand this spider-like crab, so they fished it up and ate it, and when they ate it, they found that it tasted good.
As a result, Norway embarked on the road of selling king crabs.
The king crab that invaded Norway was very popular in the market because it was fat and strong, and the brand was launched, and over time, people thought that Norway was the home of king crab.
The fleshiness of king crabs
Invasion of Antarctica
In 2011, a team used submarine cameras to survey the Antarctic offshore continental shelf and saw a familiar animal at 850 meters on the seabed.
The scientific expedition personnel were stunned, is this not an king crab? How did you run to the South Pole?
The king crab's home is at the junction of the North Pacific ocean and the Arctic Ocean, and the invasion site is in the Arctic Ocean waters of Europe, which are 18,000 miles away from Antarctica.
King crabs can't swim, they just crawl on the bottom of the sea, and they can't climb to the South Pole.
King crabs on the ocean floor
These king crabs are densely packed on the ocean floor, with an estimated number of more than 1 million, indicating that they have been breeding for many generations.
So how did these king crabs come about?
Scientists speculate that adult king crabs, although large, are very small when they are young, and they are likely to be attached to research ships and take a downwind boat to the South Pole.
Many countries' research vessels are north-south, after the Arctic mission, they will cross the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean to the South Pole, and the king crab is the South Pole that follows the ship at this time.
King crabs are flooded
Because the climatic conditions in the North and South Poles are similar, all are cold water, king crabs are adaptable and strong, and naturally live in the Antarctic.
Because there is no human fishing in antarctic waters, species are abundant, and king crabs come here like rats that have fallen into a rice jar.
The king crab in the Arctic still has the natural enemy of humans, and the king crab in the Antarctic is simply the only one.
The king crab that is hiding
Scientists believe that the 1 million king crabs are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg of the invasion, and perhaps there are other king crab groups on the seabed in other antarctic seas.
These king crabs are likely to eat the entire Antarctic seafloor ecology to pieces, forming a direct competition with penguins and seals, threatening the survival of local species.
Antarctica's ecology has long been in a state of semi-isolation, and the arrival of king crabs is likely to destroy the place.
Antarctic seals
Why is king crab so expensive?
Since king crabs have flooded the waters of the Arctic and Antarctic, why are they still sold for so much?
Some argue that the price of king crab limits foodies to save the world.
The fact that king crab is so expensive is not because it is small in number, but because it is difficult to catch.
Expensive king crab
First of all, adult king crabs live on the seabed, and it is a deep-water seabed or a polar sea, with a long period of ice every year, and it can use large ships for a short time.
Fishing boats will put special cages on the bottom of the sea, let it sit for 5 days, and then fish it up, and it is inefficient to catch king crabs on a large scale.
Some fishermen are desperate to take risks and choose to dive to catch king crabs, which is very risky.
In order to prevent fishermen from taking risks, Norway stipulates that seafarers should be examined for catching king crabs, so in Norway, there are only more than 200 fishermen who are qualified to dive and catch king crabs.
Harvest king crab
Secondly, the transport of king crabs is also very difficult. Crustaceans have a disadvantage, they will lose weight after leaving the water, and the longer they go, the thinner they will lose.
Although the king crab is heavy, the weight ratio of meat to shell is 1:4, which means that only one-fifth of the king crab is meat, and the others are shells.
After leaving the sea, the king crab begins to lose weight, so it must be frozen immediately.
Transport of king crabs
Vehicles and boats transporting king crabs must have a freezing function, otherwise the taste and nutrition of king crabs are gone.
If you want to eat fresh king crab, you can only air transport, the price is naturally more expensive.
Finally, since king crabs are cold-water crabs, there is almost no place on the mainland suitable for breeding, so almost all of the domestic king crabs are imported.
These factors add up to a king crab that simply can't be cheaper.
King crabs arrived by air
But even if it is so expensive, the mainland foodies are actively using their own strength to save the world, but for the King Crab in Antarctica, we really can't whip it.