You may not have noticed this news about Alaskan snow crabs at all.
With China's best "crab season" approaching, Chinese watch how much hairy crabs will sell for this year, and one end of the ocean, the Bering Sea, has seen a somewhat frightening official order that the Alaska Fish and Game Service canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time ever.
This is a major blow for snow crab lovers and snow crab fishermen. What makes the local panic is that the snow crabs that used to pile up on the Bering seabed have disappeared this year, and they have suddenly disappeared. Local researchers in Alaska believe that an estimated 1 billion snow crabs have mysteriously disappeared within two years, and their numbers have plummeted by 90 percent.
Snow crab, Chinese a crab that is not very familiar, but as long as you talk about the "competitor" king crab of snow crab, you understand the advantages of snow crab, both types of sea crab are famous for delicious crab leg meat, if not transported whole, except for the place of origin, snow crab generally only preserved crab legs and sent to all parts of the country.
The most common snow crab is the gray-eyed snow crab, which is mainly distributed in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, and Russia, Canada, the United States, Japan and other major fishing countries are the main fishing countries. Among them, Alaska in the United States is the main fishing area, and the snow crabs produced here have a long growth cycle and excellent texture.
In the once popular Japanese drama "Asahi 5 to 9", the handsome temple heir played by Tomohisa Yamashita, in order to win the favor of the heroine played by Satomi Ishihara, specially arranged a snow crab dinner, and the heroine who tasted the snow crab was excited because it was too delicious, this scene is really impressive.
In fact, almost no one can refuse the delicacy of snow crabs, which is why many people are willing to risk being swallowed up by the Bering Sea and invest a lot of money to drive crab fishing boats to the waves during the ripe season of snow crabs. Catching snow crabs is even one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Snow crab is known as "queen crab", which corresponds to the name of king crab, which is enough to prove its deliciousness. Crab meat is mostly concentrated on crab legs, which are slightly sweet, generally 35-40 cm long, like the forearms of adults. Although not as thick as king crab, the plump crab meat is very delicious and tender.
The biggest difference between snow crab and king crab is its crab shell. After cooking, the shell of snow crab will turn from snow white to red, the shell of the crab leg is easy to peel, just tear it by hand, the crab meat is chewy, more fibrous, and can taste a fresh sweet crab flavor during chewing, and a subtle salty taste of seawater.
However, the number of snow crabs is now in jeopardy, and local scholars and fishermen have expressed their views that it may be overfishing of snow crabs or that human activities may be causing climate warming. The Alaska Department of Fisheries also announced that red king crab fishing will also be suspended.
Of course, global news must be looked at together so that you can have a broader understanding. The Alaska Fish and Game Service's news about snow crabs comes after Fisheries and Oceans Canada released their latest data, which harvested about 50,000 tons of snow crabs this season, a 44 per cent increase in production.
But if Alaska's snow crabs are really migrating on a large scale because of the warming of the sea, and geographically, these snow crabs should go to the Arctic Ocean closer to them, why is Canada's catch increasing? No one has yet been able to explain the problem.