GIGANTIC CRABS INVADE EUROPE

MILLIONS of giant Pacific crabs, whose ancestors were brought to Europe by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s, are marching south along Norway’s coast, devouring everything in their path.

The monster crabs, which can weigh up to 10kg and have a claw-span of more than a meter, are proving so resilient that scientists fear they could end up as far south as Gibraltar.

Energised by a mysterious population explosion a decade ago, whole armies of the crustaceans-known as the Kamchatka or Red King Crabs-have already advanced about 200 km along the roof of Europe, overwhelming the ports of northern Norway.

They now number more than 10 million and have reached the Lofoten Islands off North-West Scandinavia, leaving in their wake what one expert described as “an underwater desert”.

In a graphic display of the extent of the crab’s submarine domination, some photographs of the ocean floor in Kirkenes in northern Norway show a writhing mass of the ugly, spiny animals.

Northern clams and other shellfish, once so numerous that divers could scoop up handfuls, have been all but eliminated.

Lars Petter Oie, a Norwegian diver who lives nearby, has seen the fjord outside his front door taken over by the crabs. Plunging through a hole in the ice, another diver surfaced within two minutes with a huge specimen. A snap of its claw is enough to remove a man’s finger.

The relentless advance of the crabs has led to calls from some Norwegian marine experts for a government-subsidised “blitz” to try to halt their relentless march south.

Andreas Tveteraas, an analyst in Oslo with the international World Wildlife Fund, said that urgent steps needed to be taken.

“This animal has no natural predators and it’s an alien species in the Barents Sea. That’s why its numbers are exploding. Some scientists say it will stay in the north because it likes the temperature.”

At present, some Norwegian fishermen have been granted seasonal licenses to catch the Kamchatka crab but stiff regulations on the size of the boat used and other criteria mean they are few in number.

Aasmund Bjordal, of the Department of Marine Resources in the western Norwegian town of Bergen, said: “We’re between two policies. One is to get rid of the crabs. The other is to manage it as a fishing resource.”

Transporting the monster crabs to the Barents Sea was originally part of a Stalinist era scheme to provide food for the populations in the north - western Soviet Union.

In the 1990s, for reasons nobody quite understands, the populations exploded.

LIFE - SAVING DRUG FROM SHARK LIVER

SCIENTISTS at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi, have developed a technology to isolate a drug from shark's liver that could provide protection against a range of diseases in human beings.

The technology extracts "almost pure squalene" from the liver of certain species of deep sea shark's. The drug could be used as a protector against arthritis, hepatitis, heart diseases, asthma, gastritis, diabetes and radiation, a newsletter from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research said.

The non-toxic drug is mainly found in two species' Centrophorus and Squalidae, which live under the sea at a depth of 400 to 1000 meters.

Squalene has long been known for its anti-aging qualities and used to keep human skin soft, pliable and healthy, it said.

The drug safe for human consumption, is a natural viricide, bactericide and fungicide, which reacts with water in the body and releases oxygen in the system. It could also be used as dietary supplement to help normalise cholesterol level.

Recent studies have shown that the drug prevents formation of cancer cells and suppresses the growth of tumour cells. It also strengthens the human immune system, it said.