wierd crab

[12ft kerplunk]

a few weeks ago i was sea fishing in swanage and caught a very bizzare looking crab. its body was about the size of a £2 coin, it had very long claw arms, about the length of pencils and fairly short legs. i was thinking maybe it was a juvenile spider crab but ive seen them beffore and this didnt look like one. any ideas what it could have been???

[Chippy]

Sounds like a masked crab.....did it look like this:-

 

[12ft kerplunk]

yeah i think it could have been one of those, do masked crabs bury themselves in the sand? when i threw it back in it buried itslf so that only its claws and eyes were visible

[Chippy]

A bit like this :-

 

[12ft kerplunk]

yep just like that. thanks for the pics chippy. do they normaly enter south cost waters? when i told people in the tackle shop and on the boats they all seemed pretty clueless.

[Chippy]

Yeah they're quite frequent here in Jersey, so presumably the south coast of England too.