Fact That King Crabs Cannot Swim
Attested To By Expert Guy Powell
Do King Crabs swim?
The answer to this question has
become a matter of great interna
tional significance and is of vital
and crucial importance to our Ko
diak King Crab fishery.
“King Crabs are physically in
capable of swimming.” says Guy
Powell, King Crab research biolo
gist for the ADF&G who, during
the past five years, has probably
studied these creatures more in
tensively than any other person.
“In all of my diving experience
and as shown in the movie “Adak.”
king crabs only walk or gallop with
their characteristic knee high ap
pearance,” Powell said, adding, “1
have observed thousands of both
king and dungeness crab walking
on many occasions but never free
of the bottom'.”
“In fact Dungeness commonly
burrow into the soft bottom
whereas king crab have never been
observed to burrow,” the eminent
young king crab biologist stated.
“It seems meaningless to class
an animal such as the Dungenesa
as a swimmer when swimming may
be a rare experience for only a
minority of the group. At any rate
I have written to some of the pro
fessional Dungeness experts to
seek clarification on whether
Dungeness crab swim or not,” said
Powell, “We know King crabs do
not.”
The matter of whether or not
crabs swim became of major im
portance when the Alaska congres
sional delegation called upon the
Secretary of State for a declara
tion that Dungeness and King
Crab are natural resources of
America’s continental shelf over
which the ITS. has sovereign
rights.
The continental shelf as an in
tercontinental law concept received
impetus back in 1945 when Presi
dent Truman announced that the
U.S. regarded the natural re
sources of the subsoil and the sea
bed of the continental shelf be
neath the high seas but contiguous
to the coasts of the U.S. as subject
to its jurisdiction and control. As
provided for by the 1958 Geneva
Convention on the continental
shelf which adopted provisions un
der which a coastal state (nation)
exercises soverign rights for the
purpose of exploring and exploit
ing its natural resources. By defi
nition, these resources include
“organisms which, at the harvest
able stage, either are immobile on
or under the seabed or are unable
to move except on constant phys
ical contact with the seabed or the
subsoil.”
It is the contention of the Alaska
Congressional delegation that king
crab and dungeness qualify as re
sources as defined.
The comments of Guy Powell,
who is one of perhaps two or three
King Crab experts qualified to
speak with any reliable scientific
authority, take on added signif
icance in light of the fact that ae
is probably the only man to have
successfully studied King Crab a
their own environment and has
spent many hours in skin diving
gear observing their habits under
water.
There is one other recognized
biological on King Crab in Alaska
Kodiak Lovers
Can Take Cash
instead Of Trip
If you don’t like to travel, and
you win the grand prizes in the
1963 King Crab Festival Drawing,
what does a prize winner do?
Festival Chairman Ray Martin
had the answer this week for the
stay-at-homes who enjoy the splen
dors of Kodiak.
Instead of a trip for two to Aca
pulco and all expenses paid for one
week, the winner can instead ac
cept $1,000 in cash.
If the second prize winner
doesn’t care to try his skill at Las
Vegas where his hotel expenses
and trip are paid for, he may ac
cept $700 in folding green.
Third and fourth prizes are
round trips for one each to Seattle.
If the winning ticket holders don r
like leaving the Island, they may
cash in their plane tickets for the
full amount of the fare.
Alf Madsen has offered the other
two prizes which it is hardly pos
sible anyone would want to turn
down. One trip is a flight over the
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes
for two people, and the other, a
day’s fishing trip for two to one of
his famous fishing camps on Ko
diak.
Tickets for the festival drawing
are on sale now as seven lovely
candidates for Queen have received
their tickets for sale.
to our knowledge, and that is Tak
Miyahara who is employed by
Wakefield Fisheries but whom we
have not as yet been able to con
suit.
Canadian Stand
Not Appreciated
JUNEAU - A resolution that
would have commended Cana
Prime Minister John Diefenbakei
for “his forthright stand m P
tec-ting the interests of the halibut
fishing industry in the
States and Canada against the
predations of the Japanese fishing
industry,” was killed by a voice
vote of the Alaska Senate to )e
turn it to committee last week.
The resolution was described as
having little substance
“This resolution never should
have been drawn up,” Sen. Vance
Phillips (R-Anchorage) stated, add
ing, “It is one of the most foolish
things I’ve seen.”
Mirror classifieds bring result*
17 Kodiak Men
Qualified For
Big Game Guides
Seventeen persons with Kodiak
Island addresses are listed in the
Alaska Board of Fish _ and Game
Guide Register released this week.
The 17 listed are: Michael D. An
derson, William E. Baumann Jr.,
Alfred Burnett. W. A. "Pat Can
non, Webster "Kim" Clark, Dar
rell Farmen, Kristjan Helgason,
Edward D. James, Alf Madsen, Lar
ry Matfey, Joe Maxwell, Eli Metro
kin, Park Munsey, Nick Nekeferoff,
Bill Pinell, Bill Poland and Morris
Talifson.
I
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