Catch of the day: Held up by Sealife aquarist Jemma Battric, Claude
weighs a mighty 15lbs and measures 15 inches wide - when he is fully
grown he will weigh a whopping 30lbs and gain an extra three inches
But Claude the Tasmanian giant crab
was saved from death when the fisherman who caught him sold him to a
British aquarium for £3,000. Now,
after a 29-hour plane journey from Australia – where giant crab meat is
a delicacy – and two weeks in quarantine, Claude is ready to meet his
public. He is the biggest crab on display in the UK and weighs a mighty 15lb with a 15-inch shell – enough to make 160 crab cakes.
Claude is 100 times bigger than a standard UK shore crab. Yet he is still a juvenile and will grow to double his weight. Claude was caught off the coast of
Tasmania last month, but was sold to the Sea Life group along with two
other Tasmanian giant crabs.
In the wild, crabs eat any dead or dying matter they find on the seabed
but Claude is currently dining on diced mackerel and squid and is
reportedly very happy with his gourmet diet.Rob Hicks, head marine biologist for
Sea Life, said: ‘They are such impressive creatures we thought that it
was worth the cost and effort of flying them halfway round the world so
they can flourish in an aquarium display.
‘They had a stopover in Hong Kong and
arrived with us two weeks ago. It took them a few days to get over the
jet-lag but now they’re feeding happily and don’t seem any the worse for
their trip.’
Jemma Battrick, aquarist at Weymouth Sea Life said: 'When I found out we were getting the crabs in I was really excited.
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