Deep-sea red crab (Chaceon quinquedens)

Description: These crabs are delicious. They are said to have meat sweeter than stone crab with a texture similar to Dungeness crab. There is a small fishery with less than 10 boats harvesting red crabs from the waters off of the northeast coast of the United States. These crabs live to be about 15 years old and are thought to have the largest eggs of any crab larvae released into the water column.

Geographic Distribution

Figure 1: Relative probability of occurrence of Deep-sea red crab (Chaceon quinquedens) based on computer generated distribution maps. Data source: Aquamaps

Figure 2: Approximate depth range of Deep-sea red crab (black box). Slope of seafloor is a generalized representation of the Gulf of Mexico shelf and outer continental shelf.