Malacostracans · Decapoda · Cancridae

Edible Crab

Cancer pagurus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

It supports the largest crab fishery in western Europe. Berried females stay buried without feeding through the whole incubation, and are protected by law from being taken.

Weight

500 g – 3 kg

Size

10 cm – 25 cm

Lifespan

27 years

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

OceanCarnivore Nocturnal Solitary Ocean Crustacean

22countries 22parks 20dive sites

Fun facts

It supports the largest crab fishery in western Europe.
Berried females are protected by law and may not be taken.
A female can lay as many as 3,000,000 eggs at a time.

Life cycle & biology

Skeleton type: Invertebrate - calcified exoskeleton (crustacean)
Habitat & environment: Rocky, gravel and sandy bottoms of the north-eastern Atlantic, from Norway to North Africa
Birth weight: A tiny zoea larva on hatching, released into the plankton
Size at birth: A fast-growing planktonic zoea larva
Sexual maturity: Female: 107-132 mm across the carapace | Male: 110-122 mm across the carapace
Gestation / incubation: 6-9 months under the female's abdomen before hatching
Litter / clutch size: 250,000 to 3,000,000 eggs per clutch, depending on the female's size

Sources consulted: ResearchGate (Skagerrak Kattegat maturity study); Animalia.bio; ICES Journal of Marine Science; ScienceDirect (Scottish waters maturity study); MarLIN; SeaLifeBase; iNaturalist; PMC (electronic tags migration study)