the crab that came in from the cold first record of paralithodes camtschaticus tilesius 1815 in the mediterranean sea

• Published in: Aquatic Invasions
• Main Authors: Immacolata Faccia, Alexander Alyakrinsky, Carlo Nike Bianchi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Pacific; Paralithodes camtschaticus; Red king crab
• Online Access: https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/60720; https://doi.org/10.3391/ai.2009.4.4.22

On August 2008, a single individual of the red king crab Paralithodes camtschaticus, a boreal species indigenous to the North Pacific, was caught by a gill net in the Ionian Sea, Central Mediterranean. The crab weighed 4 kg and it is estimated it was ten years old. Transport in ballast water seems the most likely way of introduction. If true, the implication is that this cold-water species is capable of surviving and growing to adulthood in a warm-temperate sea.