Chalk it up to a big appetite and a passion for seafood? I guess a little bit of technical ability came into play here, because I’m not sure any normal human being could consume 25 stone crab claws in 14 minutes.
Still, that is exactly what Aaron Sutcliffe, 39, did during the claw eating contest staged at Keys Fisheries Restaurant in Marathon, Florida.
The Associated Press reports Sutcliffe went from start to finish, cracking open all 25 crab legs and eating them in exactly 14 minutes and 20 seconds.
It was also his first crab leg eating contest; he attributes his vast consumption abilities to his never-ending hunger that he learned to satiate very quickly as a young, hungry child at the dinner table.
Even more impressive still: Sutcliffe managed to squash the restaurant’s all time record by about a minute.
There was reportedly a team portion to the competition as well, which managed to best Sutcliffe’s record by nearly half (naturally, as they had two people chowing down on the crustaceans.)
Greg D’Agostino and Rick Palmer destroyed the competition in the team portion, with an impressive 25 crab claws in 8 minutes and 50 seconds.
It should be noted that medium crab claws were eaten in this competition. That can be anywhere in length from 5 to 5.5 inches.
Small legs rank in at 4.5 to 5 inches, while large crab legs measure 5.5 to 6 (there are also jumbo and colossal crab legs, but those are too big and scary to discuss here.)
Fun crab fact: stone crabs are considered a renewable resource. After removing the claws, one can throw the body back into the water and it will grow new legs.
Truthfully, I don’t know how this feels for the crab, but I imagine it must be a traumatic experience…