Edible Crab

Hi all

In the last few days i have being picking periwinkles to eat at home.Im living in Killorglin and travel to Cromane to pick them,I only take wha i will eat and make sure i take the bigger winkles,as well as putting the rocks and seaweed back.I noticed that there are lots of crab there,Im about %99 sure they are they common shore crab,they are greenish in colour,

My question is Are these edible?If so do they have to be a certain size?

Bar crabs and perieinkles is there anything else you can find on the beach thats edible?

thank you in advance

hi man. they are commercially caught up here in the north for export to spain and france. i think they use them in soups and stuff as there would'nt be too much eating in just one crab. they only grow to a fraction of the size than brown/edible crabs do. the velvet swimming crabs (the ones with the red eyes and flat legs) are also commercially fished for. we're lucky enough that belfast lough has a pretty diverse shellfish habitat with cockles, muscles, clams and even razor readily available on the right tides not that i'd be game enough to try and eat any of them from there as when we're out digging bait there is a scary ammount of sanatary towels washed up

Thanks for the reply,

The Brown crab/edible crab seem to be out at sea so for the moment its shore crab
I was thinking of adding a small amount to Soup/CHowder/Stew etc,I saw lots of Razor Shells washed up but none intact,I think these are caught at very low tides,

Il keep looking around and see what else i can find,As far as i know you can eat those shellfish that stick to the rocks,Im not sure what they are called ,They are white and stick to rocks,They have a very strong shell and it takes a ,lot of effort to move them from the rocks

Here a few book suggestions covering this topic very well:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-Seashore ... 0747595313
http://foodonabudget.com/content1a/2009 ... -handbook/
If you do a search I'm sure you find lots more.