King crab fishing

Yesterday I was on one of the tours, that the Kirkenes Snow Hotel has in its program: King crab fishing. These huge crabs are caught in big crab traps.

First we were provided with scooter overalls, big leather mittens and helmets, because we were driven to the place by snow mobile. The crab trap of the snow hotel is located at the end of the Langfjorden. Normally it would be necessary to free the hole from new ice but yesterday it was too warm and the trap, that looks like a big cage, could be pulled up directly. And yes – we were lucky – a lot of king crabs were in the trap. Bry, the guide, took four of them and showed them to us. There are fascinating animals and looking at them closer they look like aliens.

Gry killed them with a knife and they’re dead in a split of a second. Then she took the legs, that’s the eatable parts and threw back the rests that instantly were eaten by cods swimming around. We took the snow mobile to the restaurant, Gry driving, me sitting behind her and the other seven tourists in the trailer. There’s an outside kitchen where the crab lags are steamed for 16 minutes. They look red after steaming. They’re eaten with white bread, butter, lemon and mayonnaise and they taste extremely delicious. I ate lobster twice in my life and many other types of crabs and crayfish but I liked king crabs best. And there’s a lot of meat in the legs. Three legs were more than sufficient to be full, I ate four and really was stuffed. Delicious!

 

6 comments to “King crab fishing”

  1. Sabine NL 2015-03-09 09:47

    What a fantastic excursion! ….and I like the king crab portrait!

  2. Annika 2015-03-09 16:17

    Und wie war das erste Mal auf einem Schnee-Scooter?

  3. Elijah 2015-03-09 22:15

    Stalin’s secret weapons! To pull one’s leg gets a whole new dimension! Sometimes king crabs seem to gather together and pile up – scientists still don’t know why…extraterrestrique!

  4. way-up-north 2015-03-12 07:20

    Sabine NL: I like the portrait, too even if it is quite nasty to take a picture of an animal and cook and eat it afterwards.

    Annika: Gemütlich. Wegen des Anhängers mit 7 Personen sind wir nur 25 km/h gefahren.

    Elijah: Looks like you know some interesting stories round the king crabs.

  5. Elijah 2015-03-13 13:33

    I just watched a documentation by Arte and I am originally drawn to all weird creatures, king crabs look a bit like those inside my workshop :-)

  6. way-up-north 2015-03-13 15:11

    Yes, Elijah, they look quite ancient. But I’m glad to pronounce, that these fossils were in extraordinary good condition. The inner parts of the legs was soft and didn’t taste sandstone at all.

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