Yarmouth Mayor Colleen Walker and her consort Sylvia Pratt open the new display of giant crabs at the Yarmouth sealife centre.

Great Yarmouth’s Mayor bravely got to grips with an underwater giant to help launch the new season at the town’s Sealife Centre.

Yarmouth Mayor Colleen Walker and her consort Sylvia Pratt open the new display of giant crabs at the Yarmouth sealife centre.

Colleen Walker held one of the centre’s resident Japanese spider crabs, which are the new star attractions for 2013 at the aquarium in Marine Parade.

The two female crabs Ashie and Kumo - Japanese for ‘legs’ and ‘spider’ - have taken centre stage in the centre’s new extended display area.

And on Wednesday they came face to face with Colleen after she officially launched the 2013 season at a special evening opening, attended by invited guests from the town’s tourism sector.

Bosses have invested £200,000 in the aquarium, moving the gift shop to construct the new display area, which is currently home to the ‘Claws!’ feature where Ashie and Kumo reside alongside other curious crustaceans.

Terri Harris, general manager, said the new area had been designed so it can be easily altered as next year a new attraction would be moving in.

“Every year we can refurbish this area, that includes all the signage and tanks. The whole area will have something different next year,” she added.

The new displays have also been designed to be more hands on for younger visitors, who are invited to clamber on and under some of the tanks to get a better look at the aquatic residents on show.

Darren Gook, senior marine biologist, added: “We wanted to make the tanks interactive so kids can climb up a little bit or go underneath.

“The area itself is interactive with different things to touch, getting a bit more hands on.”