A Visitor From Down Under

So at dusk I was drinking coffee and sweeping the back porch when I saw this fellow wedged in the doorway and menacing me.

This is one well set up crab, and a brave one as well.

After a major fight I got him into a bucket by ruthless broom action.  He wasn't having any of it and kept threatening me with those Ray Harryhausen claws.

Poor little guy!  For all he knew I was going to eat him.  This is a Stone Crab and by law you can only eat a single claw, and to do that you have to tear it off and dump the living crab back in the ocean.  I think that's awful, and it would take a great many crabs to make such heartlessness worth going to Hell for.  I took him to the water and set him down on the rocks, as I left he was waving his pincers at me for all he was worth, how dare I treat him in such a cavalier manner?

"A legal stone crab is defined as one with at least a 2½-inch claw, measured from the tip of the claw to the first joint behind the immovable claw. The larger claw is the only portion that may be retained and you must return the body of the crab to where it was caught. The crab’s claw will regenerate, typically within a year, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife mafia".

 Isn't that nice, getting an arm ripped off to provide a fleeting taste of crab meat for super predators and then spending a year growing it back? 

Crab photography by my brother, who has a knack for monster glamor shots.

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(Down under refers to the edge of the water, lower than this house and thank goodness for that).