Last night before bed I got caught up in a reality show called Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. So far I have learned the day and the life of a chicken grower, a turkey inseminator, and farmers who tend to big companies distributing, beef, pork, and veal. When talking and taking into consideration cruelty to animals, fish very rarely comes to mind, and in this incidence the crabs that are being sort out arent the only ones that leave hurt or dead. So I thought it was important to share a few facts with you about what I learned.
Fishing for King Crab is carried out during the winter months off the coast of Alaska, also fishing is done off of Russia and international waters. The fishing season is very short lasting only from October to January. Being a King Crab Fisherman is a very dangerous job. The fatality rate is 90 times that of the average worker and on average one fisherman dies weekly during season. Because you are out fishing in the Bering Sea, the water is rough and freezing, most deaths are caused by hypothermia and drowning. Also fisherman encounter very crippling injuries from dealing with heavy machinery. The pots that they use as traps to catch the crabs weigh between 600 and 800 pounds, if this falls on you are your clothing gets stuck on it while you are trying to throw it over board who can get yourself seriously hurt. The pots lie at the bottom of the sea filled with herring or codfish as bait, for two to three days waiting to catch the red, blue, or golden king crabs. When the pot is bought on board, the fisherman sort through it and the crabs that do not meet the criteria are thrown back. The remaining live crabs are stored in tanks on the boat until it reaches shore. If the weather is too cold on boat, the crab freezes and bursts open. Also if left in tank to long the crabs become cannibolistic and kill one another. When a crab dies it releases toxins that can kill up to ten surrounding crabs and potentionally ruin the fishermans whole catch costing them nothing or ten to thousands of dollars. Since the seasons are so short, the fishermen try to catch as much as possible to make enough money to last them the whole rest of the year.
The King Crabs that are then brought to shore and sold don't have an easy road either. King Crabs are mostly bought by companies that prepare them for you. If you happen to buy a live crab the appropriate ways of killing them are as follows. You are to boil the crab in water for twenty minutes, and you hear the crab screaming as it is getting lowered into the boiling water. Another method is putting the crab in fresh water for thirty minutes or until it drowns. The third method is turning the crab on the back with the legs facing upward, towards the back of the shell there is a flap and under this flap an opening, you are to stick a sharp screw driver up to the other end of the shell and then flip the crab back over and let it drain out. All three of these methods are completely awful, and although in cooking recipes they mention this as being the best and least painful ways of killing the crabs, I think that drowning and boiling to death do not come pain free.
So to go back to my question what is better to be a King Crab or King Crab fisherman? I really do not know, it is a very dangerous job with very little benefits, and there is a great risk of coming back empty handed, so is putting yourself in all that danger worth it? and is it right to put the crabs in dangerous conditions to be brought to shore and then tortured? I know that I will definately think twice before ordering fresh crab again.
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