A team of workers managed to recapture a consignment of about 15,000 live crabs that escaped from a truck after it ended up in ditch on Monday morning last.
The haul, worth an estimated €60,000, had spilled into a Co Donegal fieldwhile in transit.
The crabs were bound for shops and restaurants in Portugal when the incident occurred at Carrickmaquigley, Redcastle, early on Monday morning.
Donegal County Council closed the road to allow for a recovery operation which lasted close to 18 hours.
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The driver of the lorry was not injured following the single-vehicle incident.
The crabs had been caught by local fishermen around Inishowen.
Odhran McLaughlin, of McLaughlin’s Light and Heavy Recovery Services of Burnfoot, estimated about 95 per cent of the crabs had been saved.
Mr McLaughlin said it was one of the more unusual call-outs the company have had.
“It was a very unusual scene, to say the least. When we arrived a lot of the crabs had spilled out of their containers and were making a bid for freedom into the fields,” he said.
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“A team of up to 10 of us had to physically retrieve the crabs ... It was a long job but it was great to be able to save up to 95 per cent of them."
