- Crab fishing vessels cost several million dollars to build, and tens of thousands of dollars to operate annually.
- Only male king crabs measuring 6.5 inches and snow crabs measuring 4 inches from spine to spine are kept; females and juveniles are tossed back into the sea.
- In some fisheries, as many as six crabs are discarded for each legal male kept. Such handling of the discarded crabs can result in distress, injury and possibly death to the crabs.
- As they try to get to the bait, crabs often injure each other. A seriously injured crab serves as bait to the others, who will eat it. In fact, "ghost pots" — pots that are lost at sea — will continue to attract and kill crabs through this "self-baiting" process.
- Ghost pots pose a serious problem; in some places they are as dense as 50 per square kilometer, and may catch and kill as many crabs in a year as the fishery does.
- Sometimes crabs die during the fishing process, something crab fishermen try to avoid since they spoil before they can be sold. However, if the crabs are kept in a tank of circulating seawater, as most are, a few dead crabs won't harm the others.
- Boats must, as a matter of course, unload hundreds of pounds of "deadloss" after a trip to the fishing grounds.
- Red king crabs are the largest species, weighing on average from 2.7kg to 4.5kg. The largest king crab on record weighed 10.9kg and had a leg span of almost 1.5m. Opilio crabs weigh on average between 0.5kg to 1.5kg.
- At approximately US$3.90 per pound ($8.60/kg), fishermen can make between $23 and $39 for each red king crab they catch. At about $1.50 per pound, an average opilio crab can fetch $1.50 to $4.50.
- The king crab fishing season kicks off on the 15 October, and is the same date each year. While boats are also legally allowed to catch opilio in October, due to biological issues and market demand, most crews wait until January to fill their quota.
- This year, the total allowable catch (TAC) was 9.1 million kg (20.4 million lb) for Bering Sea red king crab. TAC for opilio crab was 26.5 million kg (58.5 million lb), which is 2 million kilograms less than last year. As per rationalisation guidelines, each boat in the fleet was given a predetermined quota.
- The crab boats range in size from 17.7m to 50m. Each crew consists of a captain and three to nine deckhands.
- The crabs are caught in 360kg metal pots that are baited with minced herring, sardines or cod, before being dropped 120m below the surface.
- Since crabs do not appear on radar or migrate in the same pattern each year, captains must rely on their experience and intuition to find the best locations to fish.
- Adult king crabs are seldom found coexisting with the opposite sex, even though their habitats may overlap.
- Fishermen are only allowed to harvest adult male crabs. All females and juveniles must be thrown back.
- If a crab dies in the boat's holding tank, it emits toxins that can poison the others. One dead crab has the potential to wipe out the entire catch.
- Fresh water, warm water or bad water circulation in the boat's holding tank all have the potential to kill crabs. In fact, stagnant water will kill crabs faster than leaving them out of the water.
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