How to Catch King Crab in Norway: Pots, the Pull and the Deck

The gear goes down before you arrive

King crab are caught in pots, not on lines and not in nets. A pot is a baited trap that sits on the seabed with a rope running to a marker at the surface, and it is left there long enough for crab walking the bottom to find it and climb in. That means the fishing has already happened by the time you step aboard. What the cruise does is take you out to the marker, lift the gear and show you what has arrived in it.

This is a genuine working method rather than something arranged for visitors, and it explains the shape of the day. There is no waiting on deck for a bite, because that is not how the animal is caught. There is a sail out to a known position, a haul, and a sail back.

An hour out, and it is not idle time

The run out to the ground takes roughly an hour. Reviewers consistently mention that this leg is used rather than wasted: it carries the introduction to the king crab, where the crew explain what the animal is, how it arrived in these waters and how the pots work, and it is when most people get their photographs of the fjord from a moving deck.

The wheelhouse visit also happens on the water, with the captain talking about navigating polar waters. Between the introduction, the wheelhouse and the view, the outbound hour tends to pass faster than people expect from a boat that has not started fishing yet.

The haul itself

Finding the marker is the first step, and then the rope comes aboard. A crew member takes the real weight, because a pot that has been sitting on the bottom is heavy and awkward, and guests are invited to pull alongside. Reviewers describe being handed the rope and helping bring the pot in, and one group mentions being involved through the whole sequence: pulling the pot, handling the crab and preparing it for cooking.

When the pot breaks the surface everyone can see what is inside before it lands. That moment is the centre of the trip. Whatever is in there is in there, in front of everybody, and there is no version of the day where it is quietly managed out of sight.

The pot breaking the surface, with the catch visible before it reaches the deck

What comes up, and what happens to it

The numbers vary honestly. One group pulled eight crabs from a single pot. Another caught two, another five, another one on the very first attempt, and at least one group caught nothing at all. The crew do not oversell it in advance, and the trip is built so that an empty pot is disappointing rather than ruinous.

What is kept gets sorted on deck, and the crew explain what they are doing as they go. Some of the catch goes to the galley to be cooked during the trip. If the pots have been thin the kitchen makes up the difference from crab landed earlier in the week, which is how the boat can promise a meal without promising a catch.

If nothing comes up in your pot

It happens, and the best account of it comes from a couple who caught nothing. They still held a crab, still photographed it and still ate one, and they described the crew as doing everything they could to make sure the day worked anyway. That is the honest picture of the downside: you lose the moment of pulling up your own animal, and you keep the rest of the trip.

Anyone who would be genuinely upset by an empty pot should know that going in. Anyone who wants to see how a real fishery works, on a real boat, in real weather, will find that an empty pot is part of what makes it real.

Why pots rather than nets or lines

A pot is the right tool for an animal that walks. King crab do not swim in midwater where a net would find them and they do not take a baited hook the way a fish does, so the gear that works is a baited box left on the bottom in their path. It is also selective in a way that other methods are not: what comes up is alive and can be looked at, sorted and dealt with on deck rather than hauled aboard already dead.

That selectivity is the reason the sorting step exists at all, and it is worth watching. The crew are making decisions in front of you about what stays and what goes back, and those decisions are the fishery working as it is supposed to rather than a piece of theatre added for the trip.

The weather, and what it changes

Wind is what actually affects this trip, more than cold and much more than darkness. A pot has to be found at a surface marker and brought over the rail by hand, and both are harder in a sea. Reviewers who sailed in rain and wind describe it as simply how the north is, which is the correct attitude, and the boat is large enough that ordinary winter weather is uncomfortable rather than prohibitive.

The practical consequence for you is on deck rather than in the schedule. Dress as though you will be standing still outdoors in wind for a while, because during the haul that is exactly what you will be doing, and the indoor saloon is there for the rest of it.

Answers before you go

Leave the quay

1. Board MS Tromso and sail at 10:00

   The boat leaves Tromso at ten and heads out through the harbour towards the deeper water beyond.

2. The king crab introduction on the way out

   During the hour-long run the crew explain what a red king crab is, how it reached these waters and how the pots work.

3. Locate the surface marker

   Each pot sits on the seabed with a rope to a marker. The boat comes alongside the marked position and the rope is brought aboard.

4. Take a turn on the rope

   A crew member takes the weight and guests pull alongside. The pot breaks the surface in full view of everyone on deck.

5. See what came up and what is kept

   The catch is sorted on deck while the crew explain the decisions, and some of it goes straight to the galley to cook.

6. Back to Tromso by 14:30

   Lunch is served on the return leg, and the boat is alongside in Tromso by half past two.