About Chionoecetes opilio (Fabricius, 1788)
Chionoecetes opilio is a species of snow crab, also called opilio crab or opies. It is a predominantly epifaunal crustacean that is native to shelf depths in the northwest Atlantic Ocean and north Pacific Ocean. It is a well-known commercial species in the genus Chionoecetes, and is most often caught using traps or trawling. There are seven species total in the genus Chionoecetes, and all of these species are commonly called "snow crab". C. opilio is related to C. bairdi, which is commonly known as the tanner crab, and to other crab species that live in cold, northern oceans.
Snow crabs are native to the Northwest Atlantic and the North Pacific. In the Northwest Atlantic, they occur near Greenland, Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the Scotian Shelf. In the North Pacific, this crab can be found in an area that stretches from Alaska to northern Siberia, and through the Bering Strait to the Aleutian Islands, Japan, and Korea. In 1996, snow crabs were recorded in the Barents Sea for the first time. They are considered an invasive species in this region, and it is unclear how they arrived there. Another commercially important crab species, the red king crab, was deliberately introduced to the same region and has already become established in the Barents Sea. Following this pattern, snow crabs are expected to have an adverse effect on native species in the Barents Sea.
Snow crabs live on the ocean's shelf and upper slope, on sandy and muddy bottoms. They can be found at depths ranging from 13 to 2,187 m (43 to 7,175 ft), with an average depth of around 110 m (360 ft). In Atlantic waters, most snow crabs are found at depths between 70 and 280 m (230 to 920 ft). The depth range that male and female snow crabs occupy differs. Small adult and aging senescent adult males are mostly found at intermediate depths for most of the year, while large, healthy adult males are mostly found at depths greater than 80 m (260 ft). Adult females are gregarious, and gather at depths between 60 and 120 m (200 to 390 ft). Snow crabs primarily live in very cold waters, with temperatures between −1 and 5 °C (30 and 41 °F), but can survive in waters up to 10 °C (50 °F).
