The giant lobster claw pulled in by a fisherman in North Wales (Shaun Krijnen)
A fisherman in North Wales got a big surprise in his catch recently – a giant lobster claw larger than a human hand.
The Sun reports that Shaun Krijnen found the 8-inch long claw while pulling in oyster bags from the waters off the Welsh island of Anglesey.
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"My initial thought was 'wow that looks big,' quickly followed by 'is the rest of the lobster attached to it?'," Krijnen told Fox News, via email.
The 8-inch long lobster claw next to a regular-sized lobster (Shaun Krijnen)
The huge pincer would be powerful enough to crush a tin can or break a person’s wrist, according to The Sun.
Given the unusual size of the claw, experts think that it likely belonged to a ‘monster’ lobster over three feet in length, over 50 years old and weighing more than 17 lbs.
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The huge lobster claw alongside a regular-sized claw (Shaun Krijnen)
Krijnen also found the lobster’s large carapace, the shell that covers the creature’s body, which measured over 7 inches. Lobsters shed their shells or ‘moult’ as they grow
The strange catch has prompted speculation that the giant lobster is lurking somewhere in the Menai Strait, a narrow stretch of water that separates Anglesey from the Welsh mainland.
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Fisherman Shaun Krijnen was surprised by the unusual catch (Shaun Krijnen).
"I started Menai Oysters 23 years ago and I've found big lobster claws before but never anything like this,” said Krijnen, according to The Sun. "I've showed it to the lads who work with me and they said they don't want to put their hands under the bags anymore knowing that might be there."
"It'll definitely be king of the roost in the Menai Strait, any other lobster would just get eaten,” he added.
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The shell, or carapace, that once covered the giant lobster's body (Shaun Krijnen)
Last year, a lobster weighing almost 17 lbs. was caught off the coast of Southern England, according to the The Telegraph. The crustacean, it reported, was the heaviest common lobster found in U.K. waters since 1931 when a giant weighing almost 20 lbs. was caught off Cornwall.
Other unusual lobsters have been making headlines recently. Earlier this year, for example, a New Hampshire lobsterman caught a rare blue lobster, which he donated to the Seacoast Science Center in Rye.
In August, a lobsterman in Maine hauled up an unusual translucent crustacean. Photos of the so-called “ghost” lobster went viral on social media.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
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