The beach is crawling!

5/13/2010 1:48 PM

After I covered myself liberally with aloe, a group of us few others set out for the beach last night to explore the shore and its nocturnal habitants. Headlamps on or flashlights in hand, we scanned the beach, keeping our eyes peered for anything interesting or some neat-looking shells. We came across quite a few crabs with carapaces varying in color. They seemed to be much larger and much more active than the crabs we saw during the day and above all else, more abundant! It was like the beach itself was crawling. When we would approach a crab, or accidentally run into one, it would dance back and forth as defense to confuse its predator (us). One of them that we found was carrying a small lobster/crayfish looking crustacean. The hermit crabs were much larger than the ones we saw during daylight hours as well and we found primarily at the high tide lines, around rocky substrates. The group came back with various shells of all different sizes and shapes. We found top shells, limpet shells, massive oyster shells, and cone shells and bivalve shells. At some point we will look through some guide books and keys to try and determine what species they are from, but so far the guides have not been too useful. So until then, our findings remain a mystery!

Jacqui <><