Top 7 Facts About The Red King Crab

They aren’t native to the cold waters of northern Europe

One of the most interesting facts about the red king crab is that it’s actually not native to the waters north and northeast of Europe. It’s there because it was introduced here by the Soviet government in the 1960s. The original plan was to transport these animals overland from the North Pacific and introduce them into the Barents Sea, a sea of the Arctic Ocean in the utmost northwestern part of Russia.

This plan turned into a fiasco as none of the crabs survived the long trip. A second attempt to fly these crabs to the region was more successful and they were introduced in the region near the Murmansk Fjord. By the late 1970s, the first individuals were spotted in the seas around Norway in Scandinavia.

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