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
Atlantic horseshoe crab role in the local ecosystems, with their eggs providing an important food source for shorebirds, and the juveniles and adults being eaten by sea turtles. The other three extant (living) species in the family Limulidae are also called horseshoe crabs, but they are restricted to Asia. This group of animals is also known as horsefoot, or saucepan. Some people call the horseshoe crab a "helmet crab", but this common name is more frequently applied to a true crab, a malacostracan, of the species "Telmessus cheiragonus". The term "king crab" is sometimes used for horseshoe crabs, but it is more usually