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26th Apr 10
PelicanPublisher
Photo by Tiffany Boothe Seaside Aquarium
If your area beaches are looking like something has gone very bad for the Dungeness Crab propulation – not to worry. “The crabs aren’t dying, they’re just getting bigger,” says the staff at the Seaside Aquarium. Because of the crabs’ hard exo-skeleton they can’t grow the same as other animals. In order to grow, they must shed their shell in a process that is called molting. Adult crab populations tend to molt simultaneously with the females molting in mass during the spring and males in the late summer. Large numbers of crab shells have been seen on beaches north of Seaside, a result of this natural annual molt.
