Red snow crab Chionoecetes japonicus is a deepwater crab species residing at depths of 300-2050 meters (Slizkin 2008). Distribution is concentrated in the Sea of Japan, and along the northern Pacific coast of Honshu (Palomares and Pauly 2023). Stock delineation for Chionoecetes japonicus throughout its range is not thoroughly understood, and evidence of reproductively isolated aggregations is not apparent (Buyanovsky and Miroshnikov 2016). Red snow crab is the most commercially important deepwater crab in the Sea of Japan, where it is exploited in South Korean, Japanese, Russian and possibly North Korean fisheries (Buyanovsky and Miroshnikov 2015) (Otto and Jamieson 2001; Buyanovsky and Miroshnikov 2016; Dyominov 2015).