{"id":39356,"date":"2024-06-17T13:26:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T11:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/f9ffc9e4-d1fb-43d9-b90c-3d788d057261"},"modified":"2024-06-17T14:27:30","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T12:27:30","slug":"theyre-all-eating-each-other-right-now-its-the-craziest-ive-ever-seen-them-divers-film-surreal-tuna-crab-swarm-in-california","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/theyre-all-eating-each-other-right-now-its-the-craziest-ive-ever-seen-them-divers-film-surreal-tuna-crab-swarm-in-california\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThey\u2019re all eating each other right now… it’s the craziest I’ve ever seen them.” Divers film surreal tuna crab swarm in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of tuna crabs have been gathering off the coast of California \u2013 but blink and you\u2019ll miss them.\u00a0 <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 17 June 2024 at 11:26 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Dive shops have been enjoying the claw-some spectacle of thousands of tuna crabs swarming off the coast of\u00a0La Jolla, California during a phenomenon that\u2019s being called the \u2018crabocalypse\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a total extravaganza out there right now,\u201d says\u00a0Zach\u2019s Scuba Shack<\/a>\u00a0on Instagram; a scuba centre that takes guests on night dives to see the tuna crab invasion. \u201cThis is the craziest I\u2019ve ever seen them, the most I\u2019ve ever seen.”\u00a0<\/p>

Watch: tuna crabs swarm off the coast of California. Credit: Zach’s Scuba Shack<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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The company\u2019s owner, Brian Zach, first experienced the tuna crab invasion in 2019. “The truth is, nothing anyone would have told me would have prepared me for what I was about to experience,\u201d he says on the\u00a0 Zach\u2019s Scuba Shack website<\/a>. <\/p>
\u201cAt about 15 feet the swarm began and it only got denser the deeper we went. At about 60 feet, the group was piling on top of itself and blanketed the ocean floor for as far as my visibility allowed.\u201d<\/p>
Also known as pelagic red crabs, tuna crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes<\/em>) are actually a type of\u00a0squat lobster<\/a>. Usually found off Baja California in Mexico, warmer waters have brought them to Southern California since around 2014, often during years when there has been an El Ni\u00f1o.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cIt has been unusual to see them in these numbers year after year,” Charlotte Seid, manager of the benthic invertebrate collection at the\u00a0 Scripps Institution of Oceanography<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0UC San Diego\u00a0told\u00a0NBC 7 San Diego.\u00a0“It’s not that the crabs are deliberately making their way to us,”\u00a0she says. These weak swimmers get swept along in the current.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cThese have been known to drift all the way to Oregon in years prior,\u201d says Zach.\u00a0<\/p>
Tuna crab are actually a type of\u00a0squat lobster. Credit: Zach’s Scuba Shack<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Tuna crabs got their name because tuna<\/a> love to feed on them but so do lots of other animals, including\u00a0 octopus<\/a>,\u00a0crabs,\u00a0horn sharks, stingrays and spiny lobster<\/a>.<\/p>
\u201cThey fulfil a really important ecological niche,\u201d says Zach. Feeding on plankton and other tiny organisms in the water, they provide an important food source for a wide range of animals higher up the food chain. \u201cThere\u2019s even a bat in Mexico that has been known to have tuna crabs in their diet so these guys get around,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>
What makes the sudden arrival of the tuna crabs even more special is the knowledge that they\u2019ll be gone in a flash. \u201cThey\u2019re all eating each other right now and all the predators are picking them off,\u201d says Zach. \u201cAnd they\u2019ll probably wash ashore here and be gone in a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>
Tuna crabs got their name because tuna love to feed on them. Credit: Zach’s Scuba Shack<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Images and videos: Zach’s Scuba Shack<\/em><\/p>
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100 new ocean species discovered off the coast of New Zealand<\/a><\/li>
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Giant prehistoric sea lizard with dagger-like teeth discovered in Morocco<\/a><\/li>
Incredibly rare giant turtle with a face like a frog found in India’s tropics<\/a><\/li><\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n
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