Crustaceans are the collective terms for crabs, lobsters and molluscs. Along with scampi (Italian for ‘small lobster’), barnacles and sand hoppers. Crabs are cute little creatures who often get injured when parents take their children ‘crabbing’ and in real life, they like to drum to each to communicate, how cute is that? They don’t always walk sideways, but they like to use their 10 legs to run away sideways, if chased by a predator. A wonderful mother, a crab often releases thousands of eggs at once. Unlike an octopus, a crab does not usually die giving birth.
Hermit crabs don’t have a shell, so they send out signals to each other, when a shell becomes available. More crabs climb in and die. So while they search out rotting plants and animals to eat, they often come across plastic debris and try to turn it into a shell, but can’t get back out. They die from dehydration or sun exposure, and the other hermit crabs get the scent and try to use the plastic bottle as a shell too.
On beach surveys, it was found that each found bottle contained an average 9 hermit crabs. These little guys who are ‘the recycling trucks of the shore’ constantly eating up dead plants and animals, are now trapped in plastic bottles the world over. One marine biologist calls them ‘beach vacuum cleaners’ that are so important to our ecosystems.
Leave the Crabs Be
Crabbing is a popular seaside pastime, but does the crab agree? Not likely, according to Dorset Wildlife Trust. They say that the crabs (lured by bacon) often end up getting injured, as too many are put in buckets. It’s no good ‘releasing them to the sea’ if they spend the rest of their lives in pain, with missing limbs. Many crabs end up fighting, getting too hot or even suffocating in the buckets.
There are better ways to teach children about wildlife. But if you do take your child crabbing, then have no more than three crabs in a bucket, fill the water frequently and keep the bucket somewhere cool, until release. Use a small fishing net to transfer them to the bucket then return them back to the sea within 10 minutes (find a safe low place to gently replace in the sea, don’t drop them from above). Crabs may still nip with their pincers. But that’s the price you pay for taking a private creature out of water, just so that your child can observe a frightened and probably shocked creature.
How to Help Crustaceans
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- Read the open letter by Crustacean Compassion, asking government to recognise crustaceans as sentient beings. They want better welfare in tanks and certificates of competence for chefs.
- Pick up your litter. Hermit crabs often use other shells to make their homes. But they often mistake tin cans and other debris for shells, and then get stuck in them. Over half a million hermit crabs have been killed by plastic litter, it’s estimated by marine biologists.
- Report stranded or injured creatures to British Divers Marine Life Rescue (the coastguard and RSPCA can put you through) and The Wildlife Trusts.
- Fishing for scampi also by-catches other creatures like sea turtles and dolphins. If you eat it, Marine Conservation Society says only buy from companies that guarantee they use no by-catch methods.
- Try some plant-based crab, lobster & scampi recipes.
Meet a Lovely Lobster!
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Lobsters are fascinating creatures that have an interesting lifestyle. They never stop growing (they eat each other!), taste with their legs and chew using a set of teeth on their stomachs! Around for eons, they are also at risk from by-catch of other seafood, as many get trapped in nets.
Some people like the idea of buying lobsters in tanks, and setting them free. Of course the restaurant may then catch more (which rather defeats the object). If you wish to do this, be careful as most lobsters will die from stress anyway (especially if the weather is too warm), and you can kill it if you don’t put it back into the exact ecosystem it lived in (you’ll also have to safely remove and dispose of elastic bands around the claws). When marine biologists were asked what would have happened if Tibetan Buddhists that released lobsters into Massachussetts had done this in warmer waters, they would have suffered the same fate as being cooked in boiling water, as the ocean would be too warm for them.
