A Turtles, A Pinniped, Mollusks, and Hard Shell Porn

[bob budd]

First off we're headed north to Kennebunkport to pick up our third paddler, my son Ryan. Along the way we cross the path of a very stubborn snapper turtle. Dee employed a "T-rescue", grabbing the beast by the tail, and we put it back in the roadside swamp. Now if someone would only take care of the chicken waiting to cross the southbound lanes...

After many miles we arrived at our accomodations and arose to brave the southwesterly winds blowing between the Monomoy Islands and the ever-increasing South Beach in search of pinnipeds. Much of what we saw was instead piles of mud raked up by clam diggers. Before lunch Ryan and I did see one grey head but that was all that came to greet us.

During lunch we saw many geysers telling us that the diggers had left some behind. Parked on the shallow flats, we were chased inland more than once and finished our goodies in several inches of water as the incoming tide oozed its way across the muddy sand.

After lunch we sailed back down to the observatory to climb the stairs and check the place out. They loose balloons from here that carry weather instruments. The balloons rise high enough that they expand and rupture, loosing the instruments used to predict wind speeds, etc. Back at the beach we found several horseshoe crabs, including at least one mating pair.

[Dee Hall]

Not hermit crabs. Horseshoe crabs. They were all over the barrier beach and Morris Island. Realizing I had never looked at one, I picked one up and turned it over. The stunted sword on the one I had selected swung around wildly as if it were an important sensory organ. All legs lashed in all directions in search of something to grab. Although the top was smooth on this specimen, several lady slippers had affixed themselves to the bottom near the sword.

I did a little research. The pairs we saw were not mating. It turns out that the females lay their eggs above the high water mark and the males fertilize them there. However, when the males find a fertile female, they 'hitch' a ride while she looks for a spot to leave her eggs. Sometimes there will be a chain of males hanging onto the poor female. (We also made an gender ID assumption with these crabs which was incorrect.)

It also was no coincidence that we found lots of crabs in the same spot where the humans had been digging up clams. Crabs are what the clams eat.

[scamlin]

Altruistic crabs? Carnivorous clams?

Monomoy is a wondrous place.

[bob budd]

>

>Crabs are what the clams eat.

Actually, its the crabs that are dining on the clams.