Help on hand for the humble crab

PITY the poor quayside crab that gets hauled into kiddies buckets along the north Norfolk coast and - through lack of knowledge about its needs - given a rough time.

PITY the poor quayside crab that gets hauled into kiddies buckets along the north Norfolk coast and - through lack of knowledge about its needs - given a rough time.

Now help is at hand…

For zoology students are producing advice leaflets to hand out to quayside crabbers at Wells - highlighting do's and don'ts aimed at making the crabs more comfy and talks are under way about spreading the leaflets farther afield to other popular crabbing places such as Cromer pier.

The main message to those carefree families dangling lines into the water and hauling up denizens of the deep is “don't overcrowd your crabs.”

Handy hints include a 10-crab recommended maximum in the bucket, with earlier catches thrown back to make room.

Water should be from the sea, not the tap, to keep up the right levels of salt, and should be changed hourly to ensure there is enough oxygen. Buckets should be kept out of direct sunlight, as unlike the shore pools, the contain no rocks for crabs to shelter under.

The first of 10,000 leaflets will be handed out for the first time this Friday. .

It results from work done by Cambridge University zoology students visiting the harbour last year during a long-standing link between the young scientists and the north Norfolk Coast.

Graduate Will Pearse said crab stocks were healthy, but there were concerns with the way they were treated by some people catching them for fun, but not understanding about their captives' needs.