never seen this crab before need help to ID

[bigfrog23]

was a pretty cool looking crab found hem at salt point in south Gerstal cove. pictures aren't that great. take a look hopefully some one know what species this is. this was on my second dive with this camera vis was only 4-8 feet.

canon 30D 10-22 f3.5-4.5 & aquatica housing with 2x sea and sea YS-120

 

[MarkH]

That's a Puget Sound king crab, a kind of box crab.

 

[bigfrog23]

thanks, have never seen them before we came across about 6 of them on this one dive. and this one was not in my species id books. by chance do you know what the range is one these crabs.

 

[ScubaSteve]

That is an incredible looking creature.

 

[justleesa]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

moved to our "Name That Critter" forum

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[Eris Lucan7*]

Yes that is a like those we have here but the color is esle no idea for the name.

E.L.7*

 

[TSandM]

According to the search I just did, range is from Alaska to Southern California.

Lucky you -- I have yet to see one of these guys, and I live where they're relatively common!

 

[coachrenz]

That is a good sized Puget Sound King Crab. The only one I have seen was a juvie less than an inch across its carapace. Found it at the Keystone Jetty.

 

[bigfrog23]

this guy was huge about he size of a large rim about 22 inches across. when we found hem he was munching on a sun star. we saw several other most of them were females and about the same size. i love the claus on these guys the look like thay have molars on them. they a very different from most of the crab species that we have in this part of nor cal. finding this guy was almost as good as finding he Humbolt squid a few years back down in the channel islands. i guess i can take this of the list of had species to find thanks swankenstein and TSandM for the info. i new some one would know what it was.