Hi Gabriela, You’re exactly right that these are native shore crabs. Their bleached appearance and the fact that they were all light enough to float in and be deposited with this high wrackline together makes me suspect that these are not dead crabs and are in fact crab molts, the outer shell that crabs shed each time they grow, indicating a healthy population of growing crabs somewhere in the water nearby. You’re definitely the best to know if they were dead or molts, being there in person with them, so you may enjoy taking a look at our blog post about it for the next time you come upon a big pile like that: https://wsg.washington.edu/crabteam-moltvsdead-1/
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Hi Gabriela, You’re exactly right that these are native shore crabs. Their bleached appearance and the fact that they were all light enough to float in and be deposited with this high wrackline together makes me suspect that these are not dead crabs and are in fact crab molts, the outer shell that crabs shed each time they grow, indicating a healthy population of growing crabs somewhere in the water nearby. You’re definitely the best to know if they were dead or molts, being there in person with them, so you may enjoy taking a look at our blog post about it for the next time you come upon a big pile like that: https://wsg.washington.edu/crabteam-moltvsdead-1/