Professor Bob Elwood's study also revealed soaring stress levels among

creatures caught and declawed, with many of them being left to die.

He has called into question the future sustainability of a practice

still legal in UK waters and partly fuelled by restaurant popularity.

The academic, from Queen's University Belfast's School of Biological

Science, insisted he has demolished claims it is no different to crabs

naturally shedding their claws.

He said: "The argument has been put forward that if you take a claw off and put the crab back it will grow back.

"We are saying that can't be true. They will probably either die from

the process or else starve to death.

"The idea they will survive and regenerate the claws is pie in the sky."

Prof Elwood based his findings on crabs caught from Strangford Lough in Co Down.

The study, which, for ethical reasons, involved only removing one claw

from each, discovered 18% died.

He stressed, however, that more would be killed from the bigger wounds

inflicted from tearing off both claws.

Dramatic rises in glucose levels, which indicated heightened stress

levels, were also detected.

"What that means to the animal, I don't know," he conceded.

"But I can say its actually feeling bad in the same way I would feel bad if I had an arm ripped off.

"Whether these animals can feel pain or not really requires further

study.

"It's possible there are welfare issues, that crabs have a hard time."

His findings were backed by Nick Price, who runs one of Belfast`s top

restaurants, Nick`s Warehouse.

The restaurateur has not served claws for years, a decision partly based on concerns over the consequences for the animals.

He said: "In the back of my mind, I always wondered what happened to the poor crab.

"It`s not rocket science that if you take the claws off and throw them

back into the water they're not going to survive."

Mr Price, who sails in his free time, also claimed shellfishing was on

the rise as traditional stocks decline.

"If you get lots of crab claws you`re going to run out of crabs

eventually," he warned.

Declawing, carried out on thousands of crabs every day, was banned in

the UK until six years ago.

Yet Prof Elwood's research could open up a whole new debate.

"In the past, declawing has been defended because it has been likened to claws being naturally cast off, but this study shows clearly the two are very different," he said.

"Of particular concern, was that claw removal resulted in a substantial mortality within 24 hours that appeared to occur when the wound size was large.

"The typical fishery practice of removing two claws is likely to result in a much higher mortality than that observed in these experiments and so will have marked implications for the sustainability of crab claw fisheries."

Although US authorities only permit the removal of one claw,

difficulties in determining whether any two are from the same crab make it hard to regulate.

Prof Elwood added: "In our experiments, we were aware of ethical concerns about repeating the practice of claw removal in a scientific

investigation.

"We believe though that the small number of animals is justified as it

gives important data that might save very large numbers of crabs from

this experience."

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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