Crab meat 800 years ago. Surimi is commonly used in Japan to make a type of fish ball or cake called kamaboko. In 1975, a method for processing imitation crabmeat from surimi was invented in Japan, and in 1983, American companies started production. Declawing of crabs is the process whereby one or both claws of a live crab are manually pulled off and the animal is then returned to the water. It occurs in several fisheries worldwide, such as in the Florida stone crab ("Menippe mercenaria") fishery, the north-east Atlantic deep-water red crab ("Chaceon affinis") fishery and in southern Iberia, where the
Crab meat and the animal is then returned to the water. The practice is defended because some crabs can naturally autotomise (shed) limbs and then about a year later after a series of moults, regenerate these limbs. In Western Europe crab meat is derived primarily from the species "Cancer pagurus". "C. pagurus" is a large crab noted for the sweet, delicate flavour of its meat. It is also known as the "Brown Crab", the "Common Crab" or the "Edible Crab". The United Kingdom is the largest fishery for "C. pagurus" with large fisheries in Scotland and a smaller but substantial fishery in