Blue Swimmer Crab

My eldest son has always had a thing for crabs. His first animal-world fascination was with hermit crabs, which he eventually had as pets, and he has a well-loved hermit crab softie (named Hermie) that he got for his third birthday after a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium.

As an extension of this fascination he has for several years wanted to try eating crab, and due to living in the hills and not being close to a fishmonger we just never quite made it happen. Seeing an opportunity as she always does, his grandmother decided this summer that she would buy some crab nets and take him on an adventure to catch one himself. While he did actually accomplish this, he only caught a little one so he let it go and Grandma took him to the fishmonger to get one he could eat.

I wasn't about to let a creature this strange and beautiful go in the pot before snapping some photos...so here you go.