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Geez, this forearm-sized shrimp will take up most of your barbie

Just look at the damn thing.
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 

Here's a shrimp that'll require a pretty big barbie on which to throw it.

More accurately, it's a giant leader prawn. And it just so happens to be as large as a human forearm and weighs 300 grams (10 oz).

The crustacean was captured in Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria, where it was photographed by Kai Thomas and sent to ABC News. Just look at the damn thing.

"That's a pretty significant prawn," Austral Fisheries northern division manager, Andrew Prendergast, told the news outlet, adding that it was rare to catch prawns larger than 300 grams.

"They're not a target species of ours. We catch them incidentally and they're generally always bigger than the grooved or brown tigers."

Leader prawns caught in the wild are primarily for use to facilitate breeding in farms, but they are also okay to eat, just like a regular one.

"There's just a bit more of them. You might only need one or two on your plate, not half a dozen," he said.

If this prawn isn't freakish enough for you, there's also that two-headed prawn which was also caught in Australia last year. Isn't nature wonderful?

Topics Animals

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Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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