Blue Crab Caught In Alaska

I remember going to Baltimore a few years back – for some reason choosing this mid-Atlantic destination with a friend in the middle of torrid and humid July. Perhaps it was because my vacation window was usually open in the middle of the summer, or that we made the plans around a visit from my beloved Oakland Athletics to see them play the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

When my friend left to go back to Washington D.C. for a few extra days and I had a day to myself before catching an evening flight, I took the water taxi to Fells Point and had lunch at a quiet pub. I had some Maryland crab soup with some of the famous blue crabs the Chesapeake Bay region is famous for. 

But I never envisioned a blue crab like the one that was pulled out of Alaskan waters:

 Photo by Scott Kent, ADFG

From the Associated Press:

KNOM reports Frank McFarland found the blue king crab in his pot when fishing on July Fourth off Nome. The blue king crab is being kept alive at the Norton Sound Seafood Center until McFarland can have it mounted.

The rare blue king crab has become a rock star of sorts, with people showing up at the center to have their photos taken with it.

Scott Kent, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Nome, says he has no idea why the red king crab is blue, but suspects it’s just a mutation.

Kent says a blue crab “turns up once in a blue moon.”

That would make for a rather large meal in Baltimore.