HCA: Hermit Crab Association®

[lastchance00]

i know of some beach there are sign saying don't take shells, and most of the times just because of hermit crabs. i seen videos and pictures of poor hermit crabs living in a broke bottles. the plastic if made would be great. the engineering is limitless, controlled heat lost (form what i understand crabs will which shell thick to thin if its to hot and the other way around), chipping should not be a problem, i think that the a crab trying to bite it would be more of a problem then it breaking. now, to say it better then a real shell who knows? the design seems too simple. i think it worth to look into. at least its better then painted shells. which i heard of a paint being made to be non-toxic to crabs even glow in the dark.

[Symbol]

Personally, I don't like the aesthetics of these "shells" but I do agree, it's better than the poor things trying to wear garbage.
My knee-jerk reaction is to agree with some of the previous posters here that we really shouldn't be adding MORE plastic to beaches and whatnot, but in this case I'm not sure how defensible that is. Yes, litter on beaches is bad, but these "shells" are not discarded trash, they are being deliberately placed to help. As long as the plastic doesn't leach any chemicals or chip/break I can't see that it's any worse in that respect than a natural shell. The crabs need protection, this is providing it. As stated in the article, the fact that these shells are not biodegradable may actually be a plus in this case because it means that the "shells" will be available for several generations of crabs.
Of course, that being said, I can see several other potential problems...
As previously pointed out, we weren't given nearly enough information about how the "shells" were tested to determine whether or not this was a fair test. We also don't know what species they were tested with, how the crabs using them fare over longer periods of time, etc. There are a lot of gaps in the information we've been provided.
Aside from the terrible aesthetics of these "shells", I'd also be a bit concerned about ergonomics, etc. How easy is it for the crabs to grip the plastic? Can they still retreat into the shell properly with that shape? Can they fully seal the squared opening with their BP? (I doubt it.) How well do they hold shell water?
There are still a lot of unanswered questions.

[zEn]

huh... it's an interesting idea, and if i was a crab i would prefer those to a broken bottle cap. I really like the idea of putting some good shell subs out there to help the wild crabs. But i see some really big design issues with it.
Looks like it just curls under straight, in a very square, blocky sort of curve. An actual shell curls slightly to one side (right i think). A straight curled one wouldn't work as well, i think. It also doesn't curl very much, it only doubles under once and actual shells loop and loop and loop, which lets the crabs hang on to it better and tuck way in. The fake shells also seem to be really wide at the entrance compared to the end of the curl, it seems like it would take a really tiny crab to be able to hang on to the shell. I mean tiny like the size of crab that would fit into a real shell 1/3 that size.
The whole thing just seems... incredibly square. an actual shell- the ones that hermies have evolved to be shaped like in anatomy- are really rounded. the direction change is smooth, it shrinks really gradually and smoothly if you were to walk inside of it. That's what works for crabs. I'm afraid that these blocky, stout little plastic things won't be very good hermie homes at all.
Not to mention the issues of polluting the beaches with more plastic and the hermies possibly eating it.

Maybe if they were shaped just like different types of natural shells, and made of some sort of dark glass. These little cube-shells just seem like a waste of time to me...

But maybe if they do put then all over the place, those fast-evolving little crabs will end up with really short, flat abdomens and massive big pinches and be completely square shaped in a few years

No. seriously. Good idea, badly executed. rework the shell design, maybe, but as is... i can hear the wild crabs laughing. "that's a shell? "
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[MacandHunter]

This is very good discussion, but I have to add a point. This was first brought up 4 years ago, and we talked about it here. Since then we haven't heard anything about these plastic shells, and I doubt we will be hearing anything new about plastic shells from these peeps anytime soon. Thankfully, IMO.
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[somethingfishy]

This was my post...I feel bad for hermies in the wild that end up using garbage instead of shells, but at the same time...let nature take its course. There arn't enough resources in the wild for all of them, and while yes...it does stink for the hermies who lose out, it's survival of the fittest. It's the way nature is supposed to work!

"It's a terrible idea...even if it were to help the hermit crabs, it would be detrimental to the environment and the other creatures in the sea. Plastic, as I'm sure you all know is not biodegradable. It does however get broken down into very tiny particles, which are eaten by zooplankton. The plankton, with their bellies full of plastic then move up the food chain. Eventually, the plastic makes its way all the way up to birds, which ultimately end up dying because their bellies are so full of plastic that there is no room for nutritional food. Don't get me wrong, I'm an animal lover, but people need to learn to stay back and stop trying to fix every single little problem. Instead of trying to fix problems that we didn't create, we should be focusing on finding sustainable energy sources and reversing global warming."
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[tnt4eva]

I got the distinct impression that the real reason for this invention is the fact that some people can't stand to see human stupidity and and laziness come back to bite us in the rear. So someone has come up with a 'cute' way to try and mask the fact that we are choking our ecosystems with refuse - and ironically they are creating more refuse.

This quote says it all:

[somethingfishy]

To tnt4eva...you have my respect! i'm currently going to school for Environmental Biology. It drives me crazy when people go"oh...yeah...the earth is going down the crapper anyways, no point in trying to fix it." I mean come on people! Stop and think about it for a few seconds!
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Crabber since '03
Owner of eight PP's...Joe my large, Rex, my medium, and New Girl, my small ) and 5 new rescues....names anyone?
And two E's...Sam and Ti.
Four successful molts and counting!
Other animals...Rhia, the golden retriever, Lefty the cat, Floppy the Rabbit and 13 fish!

[wolfnipplechips]

Finally, a couple posts I agree with!


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[ookami_meggle]

Hurrrrr I have met a few many people who actually think what WE do has NO impact on the earth. and I know people who actually throw their trash OUT THE WINDOW of their cars when they are done with it. or our trash and recycling people around here who decided to collect all separated recyclables and just dump them into the dump anyway. O_________________O WOOT to environmental science majors
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[wolfnipplechips]

It would be nice if there was some sort of shell recycling program where people could send their shells in and have them be distributed back to where they came from. But there is a whole heap of problems with this, I realize! Identification would be tricky at best, and of course $$ is a problem. Along with countless other things...

I think the best way to fight the shell famine is with a little education with signs up around the hermit populated beaches. In Hawaii, there are signs up saying not to take anything from the beaches. And maybe they could put some limits on collection for commercial sale...some taxes, perhaps? Just throwing out ideas. I realize taxing shells would be a little crazy.

But right now, the hermit crab population is going to follow the shell litter population...the way nature intended.

I think the main priority for our beaches should be to clean up the plastic, not put more back in. It's not worth the potential repercussions to save a few more crabs. I think it'll do more harm for them in the end.
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