Onemea Bay, Taravai, 25th of December
Encounter with A Hermit Crab
The local sailing community assembled in the village of Taravai for Christmas and New Year but as our time in the Gambier Islands would be rather limited, we wanted to see more of our surroundings and went instead to Onemea Bay on the western side of the island to snorkel.
On Christmas Day, when walking on the beach we startled a hermit crab. We had noticed it wending its way a few metres ahead of us and when we passed it, the crab suddenly folded itself, not only its legs and antennae but also its eyes, to form a kind of suit of armour.
We stepped aside and trying not to move waited patiently till the crab felt safe again and gradually began to unfold itself. Quite understandably, the very first things that emerged were the crab’s eyes and when it saw that there was nothing to fear, the crab then unfolded the rest of its moveable parts, and continued its interrupted passage towards the waterfront.
While watching the crab slowly disappear behind a volcanic rock formation carrying its indispensable seashell home, Riitta remembered reading about an interesting way a hermit crab can find a new shell: when a crab that has grown too big for its shell finds an empty shell, it leaves its own shell and tries the vacant shell for size. If the shell is too big for the crab, it goes back into its old shell and waits by the vacant shell till another crab arrives that is the right size for the empty shell. When the newcomer moves into the bigger shell it abandons its old shell, and the other crab can now make the abandoned shell its new home. Crustaceans may be brainier than we think!
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