As of June 2010, Russia and Norway jointly managed the red king crab stock. Because the red king crab is not native to this area, Norway encourages fishers to capture red king crabs outside of a specific reserve area in the county Finnmark, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries. These crabs are destroying the ocean floor and interfering with other types of fishing. Red king crabs eat the other fish and crabs in the ocean, including when they are caught in fishing nets intended for other types of fishing.
King crab introduction is a deliberate move to support the Russian economy. Norway did not originally plan to establish an industry for harvesting red king crabs and only established regulations when the red king crabs started showing up in Norwegian fishing catches. Crab release locations are in the ocean surrounding Russia. According to the Norwegian Embassy in London, Russians first released the red king crabs at the Murmansk Fjord in Russia.
Red king crabs are larger than many other crabs, and they have a large body in comparison with their legs. They also have a right claw that is bigger than their left claw. According to the Norwegian Embassy in London, Norwegian red king crabs are popular at restaurants because they weigh on average 4kg in comparison to the 3kg average size of king crabs caught in Alaska.
The Joint Norwegian-Russian Fishing Commission creates rules for red king crab harvesting. In the reserve in Finnmark, size limits apply. A size restriction of at least 137mm along the crab's carapace applies to these crabs, which corresponds to a minimum crab weight of about 2kg, according to the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries. The same size restriction applies to catches of male and female crabs. A quota of 280,000 total crab catches has been established, according to the Norwegian Embassy in London.
Fishing boats less than 15m catch most of the red king crabs in the reserve area. Norway sets a maximum of 30 crab nets per boat, and around 300 boats participated in the 2009 catch. Tourists cannot participate in commercial king crab fishing. Some travel companies in Finnmark have the necessary licenses to take tourists out on crab fishing trips. The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, or Fiskeridirectoratet, recommends that tourists ask the tour guides to display their fishing license to confirm that the license allows tourists to legally catch crab.
