Huge Japanese Crab caught by Nemuro city fisherman

Most people we know like crab meat but you rarely see any big ones these days in Japan (mostly because of overfishing). In the small fishing port of Nemuro city, a local fisherman, 60 year old Katsunori Narita caught a huge Hanasaki crab weighing 5.5 kilograms, more than twice the size of the largest crabs available on the local market.

The male crab had a shell measuring 23 cm long, 20cm wide, with pincers of 20cm and a leg span of 85cm. The crab was sent to the Nemuro City Fisheries Research Institute as research material, since overly large crabs are not good to eat. According to the institute, the record lifespan for a crab is 13 years, but this one may be at least 15 years old.

Narita earned nothing from the huge catch because the crab was not sold.