Quality Snow crab Selection 16. Know the fishing season and the breeding seasons for the snow crabs that you eat.
This information along with the snow crab origin is a good to know. Fishing seasons are opened and closed depending on the life cycle of an animal. Usually, the end of the fishing season is the start of the breeding season of an animal.
It might be changed if the population of the animal is low as well. In general, when sea creatures prepare for breeding, they store the most energy and have the best quality.
However, if the sea creatures actually develop roes from their gonads, they invest most of their energy and the meat quality is the lowest. Breeding seasons of the snow crabs vary from region to region so it is difficult to confirm.
Quality Snow crab Selection 16-1. Fishing season for Bering Sea snow crabs -Opilio and Bairdi
For the Bering Sea, Bairdi snow crab season is January to April while Opilio snow crab is October to January. However there were cases when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game cancelled seasons due to population control like 2022 when the Opilio crab season was closed.
Quality Snow crab Selection 16-2. Fishing season for South Korea snow crabs
In South Korea, Opilio snow crab season is open from December to May while snow crab catch is prohibited from May to November. Female snow crab fishing is even prohibited in South Korea fishing grounds and leads to a heavy penalty.
If the South Korean fisher boat caught female snow crabs with eggs, it would lead to an even heavier penalty.
In Japan, for a limited time from December and January, a small quota of female snow crab is set and some Japan imported snow crabs may have eggs.
Some prefer snow crab eggs or snow crab roe but like all other sea creatures, snow crabs deplete much energy when they lay eggs so the meat quality is low and snow crab roe aren’t really worth it.
Don’t think of it as Bottarga nor masago(capelin roe) nor flying fish roe(tobico). Snow crab roe is chewy without much rich flavor and sticky so it is rather unpleasant. There are some Japan imported snow crab with snow crab roe accessing South Korea.
Quality Snow crab Selection 16-3. Fishing season for Russia snow crabs
Sahalin amd Magadan origin snow crabs fishing grounds open from April to November while they are closed on the rest of the year.
While the Primorsky origin snow crabs are fished from December to April while the rest of the snow crab fishing seasons are closed. Since 2022, and as of 2025, by the Executive Order 14068, Russia origin seafood and processed food are banned from import to the USA for the conflict of Ukraine.
Quality Snow crab Selection 17. Snow crabs that step on others in an aquarium have a higher chance of having better quality.
This is also related with the vividness and survivability of a snow crab, snow crabs are stacked in aquariums alive in South Korea. The snow crabs that are vivid tend to stay on the top stepping up on the others. These are likely more vivid.
Quality Snow crab Selection 18. Know your demands and choose the right Merchants
Having the top-quality snow crabs isn’t the key to finding a merchant you would want to deal with snow crabs. Some merchants have lower quality snow crabs on purpose because they have customers who have these in demand.
You should choose your demands and whether you would want to purchase snow crabs with lower quality but with a cheaper price or you would want to spend as much money as possible while consuming the best quality snow crabs. Merchants have different strategies in selling snow crabs.
Quality Snow crab Selection 18-1. Especially for seafood, merchants always know better. Prime quality seafood is always expensive.
Especially for seafood, if something is cheap, there is a reason. Merchants never sell prime high quality seafood cheap.
This is a FACT. Don’t try to negotiate with price or money but try to negotiate with the merchandise. I don’t ask to lower the price but I ask to add additional seafood or so in seafood markets. Will be discussed in different article.
Quality Snow crab Selection 19. Actually hold up a snow crab and feel the weight
A general Opiliio snow crab with market value would weigh from 500 grams(1.1pounds) up to 1.5kg(3.3 pounds).
A Bairdi Crab may weigh up to 2.5kg(5.5 pounds). You could actually lift a snow crab and feel its weight. The heavier the snow crab feels of course more intestine and crab meat yield is expected.
Quality Snow crab Selection 20. Know the difference of an Opilio crab and Snow crab – They have different pros and cons
Bairdi Crab tend to grow much larger than Opilio Crab. However, they also have a thicker shell so if you lifted a Bairdi Crab you shouldn’t expect as much crab meat as the same weighted Opilio Crab.
However, for better texture or size, Bairdi Crab could grow twice the size than an Opilio Crab. Larger size crab means more meat.
In general, Opilio Crab is assessed as a bit sweeter than the Bairdi Crab in South Korea in terms of taste. (Western countries might not notice this a lot because snow crabs are boiled a lot that lose a lot of flavor in the water.
South Korea steams the snow crabs a lot so this difference is actually bigger than perceived) Another difference between Opillio crab and Bairdi crab is that the Bairdi Crab has shorter legs and a larger body than a Opilio Crab (same weight is supposed). Thus overall, you should choose the right snow crab species by your preferences.
Quality Snow crab Selection Final Tip – Don’t’ screw up your snow crab with improper handling, mise-en-place or storage
Choosing quality snow crab was so hard. However, maintaining snow crab quality is much more difficult than anticipated. South Korea markets have developed and invested a lot to keep the quality of snow crabs as high as possible.
However, even if quality snow crabs were chosen, very often, these snow crabs are ruined by improper storage, improper handling, improper mise-en-place(which means preparing ingredients for cooking) and improper cooking methods. Please do not ruin the snow crab that you’ve chosen so hard.
