Types

• There are a few different types of king crab: the Alaska king crab, Red king crab, Golden king crab and Blue king crab. The Red and Alaskan varieties are the most commonly fished.
  
  

Geography

• Young crabs settle on boulders and rocks early in life. Between the ages of two and four they tend to form pods with thousands of other crabs. King crabs like cold water, between 1 and 4 degrees Centigrade. Rising temperatures on the ocean's surface means that the crabs are diving deeper to find cooler water. In colder areas around the coasts of Japan, Alaska and western Canada, they can still be found near the surface.
  
  

Considerations

• In areas where the crabs have had to dive very deep, their population is scattered over larger areas, making it harder for them to breed successfully. In addition, male crabs move to shallow water in late winter to mate, before moving to deeper parts of the ocean for the rest of the year. The increase in temperature to the ocean's surface makes it harder for mating to happen.