Hi Glynnis, What a nice diversity of species you came across! I spy red rock crabs, some dungeness, both purple and hairy shore crabs, and even a member of the spider crab family. Thanks so much for taking the time to do a Molt Search while you were out there. Hood Canal is a highly important geography to be surveying this season, as we work on tracking exactly where green crabs may be expanding there. It’s quite likely that all those thousands of shells you saw were molts. This is the time of year when the waters begin to warm and so crabs begin to grow, and it’s not uncommon for crabs of the same species, living in the same place to all grow & molt at very similar times, causing piles of molts to wash ashore in a single tide. Isn’t it fun to be out and about, noticing these changes! – Lisa
1 Comment. Leave new
Hi Glynnis, What a nice diversity of species you came across! I spy red rock crabs, some dungeness, both purple and hairy shore crabs, and even a member of the spider crab family. Thanks so much for taking the time to do a Molt Search while you were out there. Hood Canal is a highly important geography to be surveying this season, as we work on tracking exactly where green crabs may be expanding there. It’s quite likely that all those thousands of shells you saw were molts. This is the time of year when the waters begin to warm and so crabs begin to grow, and it’s not uncommon for crabs of the same species, living in the same place to all grow & molt at very similar times, causing piles of molts to wash ashore in a single tide. Isn’t it fun to be out and about, noticing these changes! – Lisa