A GIANT box crab, dubbed 'Spud' after its potato-like body, has been hauled up in the nets of a Newlyn fisherman.

The rare species of deep-sea crab, normally found at depths of down to three kilometres, was caught 80 miles west of Scilly by skipper Matthew Keast on his boat Harvest Reaper while fishing for turbot.

Believed to be Britain's largest crab species, the giant box crab can reach lengths of up to two metres.

Spud is one of only a handful of specimens recorded since records began in 1900 and one of the only ones to have been caught live. Despite its long journey from the depths, the crab, which has a claw span of more than a metre, appears in reasonable condition and is being looked after in a specially chilled tank at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay.

Curator Matt Slater said: "It looks like something from another planet and has caused quite a stir among all the staff here.

"It's one of the oddest crabs I've ever seen. It has weird eyes on stalks which look like bicycle handlebars and a strange pair of backward facing pincers. Apparently it's normally found very deep on the edge of the continental shelf which runs from Morocco to Ireland at depths of 3,000 metres," he explained.

Due to the great depths at which they live relatively little is known about giant box crabs, but it is thought they live mainly off dead fish they find on the seabed.