A massive crab with a 60-centimetre claw span has been accidentally caught by lobster fishermen in Cornwall.The colossal crustacean - one of the biggest crabs ever caught off Britain - was picked up in a lobster pot five miles south east of Falmouth.
Skipper Ned Bailey says he could not believe his eyes when he first saw the giant crab. But rather than tucking into the edible crab he contacted the local Blue Reef aquarium.
Once there, the crab, nicknamed Titan, was weighted at 3.5 kgs (8 lbs) and inspected by experts who marvelled has his fist-sized claws. And when we say 'marvelled' we obviously don't mean 'started mentally calculating how many people Titan could feed'.
Blue Reef curator, Matt Slater, said "Ned called us as he knew Titan was a magnificent specimen."You often hear reports of giant crabs and take them with a pinch of sale. However Titan really is a bit of a monster.
"He’s twice as big as any other edible crab we have ever had at the aquarium. His claws alone are absolutely massive!
"Titan’s in fantastic condition and is quite feisty so you do have to take care when handling him. There’s no accurate way of working out how old he actually is – but judging on his size alone he must be close to a decade old, if not even older,"
