An enormous crab, which spent five days in a fridge, has made a miraculous discovery at Bristol Aquarium
The giant Edible crab (Cancer pagurus), measuring 23cm/9" across its carapace and with claws the size of hands had been caught by a fisherman in Dartmouth and then transported to Weston-super-Mare in his car in the hope that the gift would help cheer up a sick friend.
The crab then spent five days in the fridge before the family decided they just couldn't bring themselves to eat it.
Bristol Aquarium’s David Waines said: "We received a phone call from a lady who told us they had a large crab in their fridge and they wanted to donate it to the aquarium.
"Basically, they didn’t have the heart to kill him. Additionally, they decided they did not have a saucepan big enough to cook him in!
"When she told me it had been in there for five days I couldn’t believe it was still alive. I told them to wrap it in a wet towel and bring it along to the aquarium as quickly as possible.
"Although the crab was very weak when it arrived the fact that it was kept refrigerated meant it was in a kind of suspended animation.
"We placed it into a special tank in our quarantine area and began pumping oxygen-rich seawater over it and it immediately started to show signs of recovery.
"Hopefully it will continue to get better and will be able to enjoy an unexpectedly long retirement here at the aquarium," he added.
The Edible crab is Britain’s largest species of crab. Tests have shown that its claws have the crushing strength of over 90 pounds per square inch. An average person’s hand is only capable of squashing to 25 lb per square inch.
They also use them to crush prey, such as shellfish as well as in fights with other crabs in which they can losing their claws, re-growing them at the next moult.
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