Snow Crab
About Snow Crab[]
The Snow crab occupies the colder waters of both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Females grow to about 3 inches or 8 cm, males to four. Like the king crab, the snow crab is esteemed for its fleshy leg meat. They swim slowly preferring deep, cold-water conditions. The snow crab is a crustacean, like lobster and shrimp, with a flat, almost circular body and five pairs of spider-like legs. Snow crabs grow by producing a new shell underneath the old one, a process called molting. Snow crabs tend to molt in the spring. For the first few weeks, the new shell is soft and easily damaged, and the crab is highly vulnerable to natural predation. The snow crab diet includes fish, clams, polychaete worms, brittle stars, shrimp, and other crustaceans. Major predators of snow crab include ground fish, seals and other snow crab. This crustacean, whose body is almost perfectly circular, has five pair of long, flattened legs, the first of which sport strong claws. The shell is light brown on the back and creamy white on the belly.