The northernmost tip of Norway is called The North Cape, which is the northernmost part of the European continent, there is an interesting phenomenon here, there is a dividing line in the North Cape that separates the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea, if you catch a king crab in the Barents Sea, you will be caught and imprisoned, but if you row less than a minute, come to the Norwegian Sea and catch the king crab, if you put it back into the sea, you will also be fined, why does the same country have two different attitudes towards the king crab?
Before answering this question, we must first understand the red king crab in the Baronds Sea, they are the largest of all the king crabs, the span between their left and right legs is up to 1.8 meters, the weight is more than 10 kg, mainly living in the deep sea area below 850 meters, they are very demanding on the ambient temperature, the living water temperature is 2-5 ° C, and the minimum water temperature that can survive is 1.4 ° C.
The Barents Sea is located between Norway and Russia, before 1960, there were no king crabs in the Barents Sea, the Soviet metropolises of Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc. were in the west of the Barents Sea, but people in these cities wanted to eat king crabs, but it was very difficult, so the Soviet biologist Yuri Orlov came up with a way, in the autumn of 1960, he brought 9 female king crabs to the Barents Sea area of the Soviet Union, and in the next ten years, as many as three thousand king crabs were successively released into Kra Bay. Since then, king crabs have taken root here.
Since the red king crab has no natural enemies in the Barents Sea and the food here is very rich, the red king crabs began to breed wildly in the Barents Sea, coupled with their strong reproductive ability, the red king crabs successfully became the strongest invasive species in the Barents Sea, and as the number of red king crabs increased, they began to appear in the waters of the Norwegian Barents Sea in 1990.
Although king crabs have flooded in the Barents Sea, they are not hunted by anyone who wants to hunt, and Norway and Russia have agreed to hunt only with authorization, and there is a quota limit every year.
Therefore, hunting king crabs in the Balents waters of Norway's North Point is an offence, ranging from fines to imprisonment.
For Norway, the destructive power of king crabs is too strong, it is not too much to describe it as "wherever they go, there is no grass", their diet is very extensive, the mollusks on the seabed are on their diet, coupled with their strong appetite, the seabed they pass through often appear desert, resulting in a sharp decline in the number of other species.
However, Norway has reached a consensus with Russia to authorize hunting in the Barents Sea, so although the Barents Sea king crab is flooded, it is still illegal, but the Norwegian Sea, which is across the line from the Barents Sea, here Norway has its own final say, the Norwegians are very afraid that the king crab will continue to invade the norwegian sea westward into the Norwegian Sea, so as long as whoever drops the king crab into the Norwegian Sea is illegal.
King crab is huge, the meat is delicious and juicy, it is a rare delicacy in the eyes of foodies, the price is also very expensive, many people may have such a question, then why is the price of king crab so expensive?
First of all, Russia and Norway on the coast of the Barents Sea have a crab hunting agreement, there must be a authorization to catch crabs, and even if there is authorization, there can be endless arrests, there are quota restrictions, in 2021, Russia issued a 100,000 tons of crab fishing quota (mainly king crab and snow crab), Among them, the Far East fishery has obtained a quota of 75,600 tons, and the northern fishery has obtained a quota of 24,000 tons, which is far from meeting the demand, bearing in mind that from January to October 2019, China imported 46,000 tons of live crab, and the shortage of supply is one of the main reasons for the high price of king crab.
Secondly, the living environment of king crabs is very harsh, most of them live in the deep sea of 800 meters, the water temperature needs to be 2-5 ° C, the sea water can not be polluted, in such an environment, king crabs need to grow 7-9 years to grow into thick king crabs, so even if the king crabs in the Barents Sea are flooded, but the production of king crabs in the entire ocean is not high.
Finally, the king crab fishing is also very dangerous, known as one of the most dangerous occupations in the world, king crab fishing for winter and very short, generally only 2-3 weeks, this season the sea often appears 12 meters high waves and a speed of up to 128 kilometers per hour sea breeze, because the king crab is mostly in the deep sea, the requirements for fishing equipment are also very high, usually using steel crab cages weighing more than 600 pounds, operating crab cages is also a technical job, not only physical strength but also requires experience, and even luck.
So, various reasons superimposed on the result, the king crab we eat is expensive.
King crab is huge, coupled with a very high economic value, people call it "the king of crabs", however, king crabs say that they are not worthy, because they are not real crabs, is a full-fledged "fake".
From the appearance point of view, crabs have eight claws and two pliers, but the king crab only has six claws and two pliers, of course, it can not be simply said that the king crab does not belong to the crab.
▲ King crab
▲ Crab
To judge whether it is a crab, we mainly look at the following three aspects:
1. All crabs are covered with chitinous carapaces. The carapace protects the body of the crab, and the baby crab needs to grow larger and larger through the molting shell, and the new shell that has just been molted is soft and collapsed, but usually the new shell will harden within 12 hours. This is one of the reasons why crabs are classified as soft nails.
2. All crabs belong to the order Decapods under the order Soft-bellied. That is, when calculating the legs of the crab, in addition to the foot, two pliers are added.
3. All crabs belong to the order Dictates. The crab's umbilicus is like a folded tail clinging to its body, and the breeding mother crab carries fertilized eggs at the umbilicus. Because of this feature, all crabs are classified as the order Short-tailed Suborder.
However, the king crab does not have the above three characteristics, so the king crab is not a crab, it belongs to the decapod order Crooked-tailed suborder Stone Crab family.
▲ The belly of the king crab is rolled to the right
Careful observation of the belly of the king crab, you will find an interesting feature, the inside of the king crab's belly is not symmetrical, but curved to the right, which is very similar to the butt of the hermit crab, they all belong to the crooked tail suborder, are not real crabs, the reason why the hermit crab has a name with "crab", mainly because it looks like a crab.
▲ Hermit crab
In addition, the mating method of king crab is also very strange, the life span of king crabs is 20-30 years, they are sexually mature between 4-7 years old, the choice of female king crabs is also very simple, like tall and mighty males, once the male and female king crabs determine the relationship between husband and wife, male king crabs will take the female to find a secret place, and then both sides have been holding, up to two weeks, this stage they do not eat or drink, once mating is completed, female king crabs can produce 500,000 fertilized eggs, These fertilized eggs stay in the female king crab for a year until they hatch.
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With the global warming, the Sea temperature in Antarctica is getting higher and higher, the king crab has begun to march to the Antarctic, in 2004 the zoologist Professor García Lasso first found the figure of the king crab in the Antarctic continent, which is not a good sign, after all, the invasion of the Barents Sea king crab is still vivid, their damage to the seabed ecology is huge, so in recent years has been advocating to reduce carbon emissions, protect the earth's environment is by no means an empty slogan.