Crabs of the British Isles

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Largest and smallest crabs of the British Isles
Pinnotheres pisum
(up to 4 mm across the carapace)

Around 65 species of

Eriocheir sinensis, which occurs in fresh and brackish water. They range in size from the deep-water species Paromola cuvieri,[3] which can reach a claw span of 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in),[4] to the pea crab, which is only 4 mm (0.16 in) wide and lives inside mussel
shells.

Fisheries

Commercial crabs in the British Isles
Necora puber
, is landed in the British Isles every year.

Several species of wild crab are the subject of

Necora puber (193 t). Around 77% of the catch is landed in the United Kingdom, 19% in Ireland, 4% in the Channel Islands, and 1% in the Isle of Man.[Note 2]

Species

62 species have been directly observed in the waters of the British Isles:[1][Note 3]

Dromiidae
Homolidae
Leucosiidae
Majidae
Oregoniidae
Inachidae
Epialtidae
Parthenopidae
Corystidae
  • Corystes cassivelaunus
     (Pennant, 1777)
Atelecyclidae
Thiidae
  • Thia scutellata
     (Fabricius, 1793)
Pirimelidae
  • Pirimela denticulata
     (Montagu, 1808)
Cancridae
Portunidae
Geryonidae
Goneplacidae
Xanthidae
Panopeidae
Pilumnoididae
Pilumnidae
Grapsidae
Varunidae
Pinnotheridae

Three deep-water species have also been recorded near the British Isles, and are likely to occur in the area. These are:[1]

Notes

  1. isobath surrounding the British Isles, between 48 °N and 62.5 °N, and between 13 °W and 6 °E; this includes the English Channel and parts of the North Sea coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands, but excludes the Faroe Islands.[2]
  2. ^ Fishery data is for the year 2009, and is taken from the FAO's online database, summing the captures for the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Ireland and the United Kingdom.[5]
  3. Nomenclature follows Ng et al. (2009).[6]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-948150-06-7
    .
  2. ISBN 978-0-948150-06-7
    .
  3. ^ Michael McCarthy (April 22, 2010). "Britain's biggest crab emerges from the deep". The Independent. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  4. ^ Mike Thurston (1987). "Record breaking crab is not such a strange catch". New Scientist. 114 (1554): 24.
  5. ^ "Global Capture Production 1950–2009". Food and Agriculture Organization. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  6. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2011-06-06.
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