He was destined for the pot – if they had found one big enough to fit.
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.
He
will go on display at the Sea Life centre in Weymouth, Dorset, on Thursday, and
his two companions will be moved to other centres in Birmingham and
Berlin if Claude responds well to his new home.
Currently
he is being kept on his own in a specially made cylindrical tank, ten feet tall
and six feet wide, but the aquarium will introduce some coldwater fish once he
is settled.
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