Cancer magister, Dungeness crab

Interesting Facts

Will the Discovery Channel have to change the name of its hit show “Deadliest Catch” ????

A new report shows that Dungeness crab fishing off the coast of Oregon and Washington is more dangerous than Alaska’s Bering Sea king crab fishing. Read the article at Occupational Health & Safety.

Do Crabs Feel Pain!???  

As reported by BBC, new studies show that crabs can sense and remember pain!  Professor Bob Elwood and Mirjam Appel did electric shock studies at Queen’s University.  Will crustaceans ever get the respect they deserve being acknowledged as pain feeling organisms just like mammals.  Will we now feel more guilty eating that crab dipped in tons of melted butter!! (I don’t think so)    

Nutritional information of crab meat:

Why do crabs or lobsters turn red when I cook them????

The red colored pigments are always present in the crab, but there are tied up as complex protein chains that give the crab that darker color. Astaxanthin, a carotenoid, is the pigment responsible for the red color.  Once the crab begins cooking the complex proteins uncoil and the red color becomes visible. 

The concept is similar to that of a leaf changing colors in the fall.