One day, while walking the beautiful shores of Okinawa, Shawn Miller noticed something disturbing: A hermit crab employing a plastic bottle as a shell. Then he began to notice it more and more, and it wasn’t just plastic bottles the crabs used cans, glass, lots of things that were common in one essential way: they were not sea shells.
This is“shell stress” and it arises from a combination of tourism, debris and environmental, er, um stress. It’s not great, unlike real shells, fake shells offer no thermal relief and only the poorest of protection.
Miller reacted. He has developed and implemented a “shell exchange,” he sources and employs natural shells in controlled environments next to these shell stressed crabs.
It (usually doesn’t, but) may take hours, but eventually the crab discards its plastic home for a calcium-rich sanctuary. It’s restoration on a small level, but it’s awesome.
