Friday, February 18, 2011

Get a load of THIS guy

Imagine you're a cardinal fish, swimming happily through Suruga Bay, minding your own business.

Suruga Bay (starred) with a view of Mount Fuji (triangled, little bonus fun fact)

wire coral from National Geographic

Oh hey, there's some wire coral, and look at that, there's a sun star, and hey there's a...

What the WHA?

Crabzilla, fo' rilla

That is 33 pounds of Japanese spider crab craziness right there (Macrocheira kaempferi)! (My friend Jon posted this on facebook, and I felt compelled to share it with you.) Friends, this is what happens when a crab lives to be (estimated) between 30 and 40 years old. And I'll just say, he's aged well! His front legs are more than 5 feet long, for crab's sake!!

"Crab Kong" was caught southwest of Tokyo in Suruga Bay, surely startling the fishermen but also leaving them with the idea to hand him over to an aquarium rather than eat him! So, if you want to see this guy, read more here and here for information (he seems to be touring Europe a bit).

And don't worry, all you real cardinal fish out there; I hear Japanese spider crabs are actually quite nice.

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