Red King Crab
The red king crab is one of five species in the same family. Three of the species live in the northern part of the Pacific and the Bering Sea. The other two live off the coast of California. The red king crab is the only one found in the Barents Sea.
In Russia it's called kamtsjatka crab.
Russian scientists planted red king crabs in the Murmansk fjord in the 1960s to create a way of living for the locals in the area. Since then the crab has spread eastward and westward in the southern Barents Sea.
The king crab is preying on all sessile benthic species, with a dominance of soft bottom species. Investigations have shown that large specimens of echinoderms, bivalves and siphunculids disappear in areas with high abundances of crabs. I addition,…
