Crab Fest

This story is four years old, so those crabs have probably eaten all those Norwegian fishermen by now and crossed the Atlantic, ready to invade our coastal waters...

Millions of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway's coast, devouring everything in their path.

The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 25lb and have a claw-span of more than three feet, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar.

Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans - known as the Kamchatka or Red King Crabs - have already advanced about 400 miles along the roof of Europe, overwhelming the ports of northern Norway.They now number more than 10 million and have reached the Lofoten Islands off north-west Scandinavia, leaving in their wake what one expert described as "an underwater desert".

In a graphic display of the extent of the crab's submarine domination, some photographs of the ocean floor in Kirkenes in northern Norway show a writhing mass of the ugly, spiny animals.Northern clams and other shellfish, once so numerous that divers could scoop up handfuls, have been all but eliminated.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/28/wcrab28.xml