Edible Crab

Family Cancridae

REMARKS A large crab which can measure well over 20 cm and which has extremely powerful, indeed dangerous, front claws. It is an Atlantic rather than a Mediterranean crab. It is found all round the coasts of Britain, for example, and is the only crab fished in British waters for human consumption. Its presence in the Mediterranean is limited; indeed doubtful if we take into account the possibility that it has been confused with Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, the blue crab. This is none other than the famous blue crab of the eastern American seaboard, which has become established in the eastern Mediterranean in relatively recent times. Professor Holthuis of Leiden University has published an interesting paper on the European distribution of this species, showing that occasional specimens turn up even on the Dutch coast; but conditions for a breeding population seem only to exist in the eastern Mediterranean. It is there also that one may come across another large immigrant crab, Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus), which has arrived through the Suez Canal.