Echizen-gani is the male snow crab, and only the male. The female of the same species has a different name here — seiko-gani — and is treated as a different product, sold at a different price, in a different part of the market.

The season is fixed by date. Males may be taken from the sixth of November to the twentieth of March. Females from the sixth of November to the tenth of January only, about two and a half months shorter, because they are carrying eggs and the shorter window is what protects the next generation.

Every crab landed gets a tag attached to it. The colour identifies the port, and crabs coming in at Echizen carry a yellow one. From the tag you can work out where a particular animal came ashore and, in practice, which boat brought it in. A crab without one cannot be sold under the name at all.

So this is a shellfish administered by name, by date and by label. Before anybody discusses how it tastes, the conversation is about when it may be caught and where it was landed. That order of priorities is not an affectation. It is what a fishery looks like when the people in it have decided the stock is worth more than this season's catch.