Brown crab

The brown crab (Cancer pagurus) is an edible decapod crustacean found in the North Sea, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Cantabrian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

It is a robust brownish-red crustacean, with an oval carapace and black pincer tips. Mature adults can have a carapace width of 25 cm (centimeters) and weigh 3 kg (kilograms). Its natural life expectancy is about 20 years, but very few individuals will reach it due to heavy commercial exploitation.

It abounds from the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean of Norway to North Africa in the south, in coarse mixed loam-sand terranes of shallow sublittoral up to about 100 m (metres). It is frequently found inhabiting cracks and holes in rocks but occasionally also in open areas. The smallest specimens can be found under rocks in the littoral zone.