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Crabs

Dozens of species of crabs, lobsters and hermit crabs inhabit the North Sea. There are even species that live in freshwater.

  • Male or female?
    Difference between male and female crab, Ecomare

    Crabs are powerfully built and have a sturdy skeleton. The carapace is flattened and the back end is folded under the body. Just turn a crab over and it is easy to see. By lobsters, this would be the tail. You can determine whether or not the crab is male or female by all crab species based upon the shape of this forward pointed part of the carapace. If the 'tail' is broad and roundish, sort of resembling a bee hive, then it is female. The female stores her eggs under this flap. If it has a triangular shape, therefore narrow and pointed, then it is a male. The shape will vary between the various species, one resembling a lighthouse while the other looks more like a pyramid. Under the flap of the male are two penises, left and right. These are actually converted legs!

  • New: the brush-clawed shore crab
    Brush-clawed shore crab, Sytske Dijksen, www.fotofitis.nl

    The brush-clawed shore crab (Hemigrapsus penicillatus) is a recently introduced non-native crab species, first found in the Netherlands in April 2000. The crab has tufts of hair on its claws, which looks like hair from a paint brush. Despite its much smaller size, it competes with the shore crab for food. The brush-clawed shore crab, also known as the Japanese shore crab, probably came to this area in the early 1990s, along with a cargo of Pacific oysters destined for the French Atlantic coast.

  • New: angular crab
    Goneplax rhoboides, Ecomare, Salko de Wolf

    Considering the size of its body, the angular crab (Goneplax rhomboides) is a crab with enormously long and large claws. It was fished up in the North Sea in 2003, around 100 kilometers north of Vlieland. Additional finds were reported to Ecomare in 2004.