I held so many crabs today.  Today was a big day for crustaceans.  I found a juvenile Caribbean spiny lobster molt and it was much more intact than I expected.  Also the spines on it were very sharp.

We found a big piece of wood that we brought onto shore because it was disturbing the reef. On shore, I noticed so many crabs!!! I picked up a few and brought them back to the wet lab on the island and filled a bucket with salt water for them.  When they got in the water they all came together probably to try to camouflage themselves.

Two of them were species I had never seen before.  They looked like green algae and were fuzzy.  Their carapace was also more pointed which is very different.  It felt weird to hold them in my hands, they tickled.

In the afternoon we picked up trash and collected data on it.  In one of the trash piles collected we noticed a land hermit crab hiding inside a styrofoam cap.  This makes it very vulnerable to predators because it is easily taken out of its “shell.”  We are in the process of finding Hermy (thats what we named it) a shell.

Overall, it was a pretty good day with some free time at night and I can go to bed early (-ish)!