Glad I'm not the only one who thinks they've found a crab pearl

by Matt
(Austin, TX)

I was enjoying some Alaskan king crab legs that I got from the local grocery store one night when I took a large morsel of crab meat and bit down on something extremely hard. It was quite large, larger than any of the descriptions I have seen on this site. It was about the size of small grape. I was horrified, I thought it was some kind of crab tumor/calcification. As I am a scientist by trade, I decided to investigate the object further. I cut it open with a pair of pliers and found a disturbing moist sponge-like interior structure. Has anyone else tried to open one as well? I tried to research the matter with little success, until I found this site. Can anyone provide a thorough explanation as to what these "crab pearls" really are?