Florida Keys man eats 25 stone crab claws in 14 minutes

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Aaron Sutcliffe raises his hands in victory after cracking and cleanly consuming 25 medium stone crab claws in 14 minutes and 20 seconds Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, at Keys Fisheries Restaurant in Marathon, Fla. He won the Stone Crab Eating Contest in the Florida Keys, which awarded individual and team honors to participants who turned in the fastest times for cracking and cleanly consuming 25 stone crab claws. (Andy Newman/AP Photo via the Florida Keys News Bureau)

Credit: Andy Newman

Credit: Andy Newman

In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Aaron Sutcliffe raises his hands in victory after cracking and cleanly consuming 25 medium stone crab claws in 14 minutes and 20 seconds Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015, at Keys Fisheries Restaurant in Marathon, Fla. He won the Stone Crab Eating Contest in the Florida Keys, which awarded individual and team honors to participants who turned in the fastest times for cracking and cleanly consuming 25 stone crab claws. (Andy Newman/AP Photo via the Florida Keys News Bureau)

A professional fisherman has won a stone crab claw eating contest in the Florida Keys.

Aaron Sutcliffe, 39, cracked and consumed 25 medium claws Saturday in 14 minutes and 20 seconds. He bested the record of the five-year contest staged at Keys Fisheries Restaurant by a minute.

Even though it was the Marathon resident's first contest, Sutcliffe said he was accustomed to eating stone crab claws quickly, because while growing up that was the key to satisfying his appetite at the family dinner table.

Greg D'Agostino and Rick Palmer won the team division where stone crab aficionados shared cracking and eating duties. The Marathon residents finished in 8:50.

Stone crabs are a renewable resource. Fishermen harvest legal-size claws and return the crab's body to the water to grow new extremities.