The Atlantic blue crab is a member of the Portunidae swimming crab family. Its Latin name, Callinectes sapidus, translates to "savory, beautiful swimmer". In order to grow, crabs must shed their hard shell and regrow a new, larger shell. It is only during this soft shell state that female crabs are able to mate, thus it is easy to target females crabs that are about to molt by baiting traps with male crabs during mating season. The females are attracted to the pheromones emitted by the male crabs and they enter the traps.

King crabs are the largest commercially harvested crab, reaching up to 6 feet from leg tip to leg tip and weighting up to 10 lbs. They have spiny red shells, though closely related species also come in blue and brown. King crabs have six long walking legs, one large claw (for catching and killing prey) and one small claw (for moving prey to its mouth). The body meat is flakier than the leg meat, though it is all sweet, moist and rich. The highest quality meat comes from the upper section of the walking legs, and is often labeled as fancy meat. King crab is almost always pre-cooked and sold frozen.
Sixteen to twenty legs per ten pounds of product.

The name snow crab technically refers to only one species, Chionoecetes opilio, but is also often used to refer to two cousin species of tanner crab: Chionoecetes tanneri and Chionoecetes bairdi. These crabs all have four sets of walking legs and a pair of claws. Bairdi are the largest and opilio are the smallest. All have sweet and delicate meat, which is white or a bit reddish. The legs and claws are usually cooked and sold frozen. These are some of the crabs that the Deadliest Catch fleet is harvesting.
A cluster is multiple legs attached to a portion of the body - size is 8 or fewer per pound.

The name snow crab technically refers to only one species, Chionoecetes opilio, but is also often used to refer to two cousin species of tanner crab: Chionoecetes tanneri and Chionoecetes bairdi. These crabs all have four sets of walking legs and a pair of claws. Bairdi are the largest and opilio are the smallest. All have sweet and delicate meat, which is white or a bit reddish. The legs and claws are usually cooked and sold frozen. These are some of the crabs that the Deadliest Catch fleet is harvesting.
A cluster is multiple legs attached to a portion of the body - size is 10 or more per pound.

The name snow crab technically refers to only one species, Chionoecetes opilio, but is also often used to refer to two cousin species of tanner crab: Chionoecetes tanneri and Chionoecetes bairdi. These crabs all have four sets of walking legs and a pair of claws. Bairdi are the largest and opilio are the smallest. All have sweet and delicate meat, which is white or a bit reddish. The legs and claws are usually cooked and sold frozen. These are some of the crabs that the Deadliest Catch fleet is harvesting.
This is the meat picked from the shell.