Hermit Crabs

I promised photos of hermit crabs over a month ago…well I finally got them all edited. So here are a few pictures and my Ode the the hermit crab.

I see a simple and rustic elegance in hermit crabs. They are the rough and tumble squatters of the oceans. Born homeless and soft they set adrift on the tide to scavenge for the cast off shells of other animals fortunate enough to grow their own. But even when safely ensconced in a new mobile home they never escape the knowledge that eventually it will be out grown. Their temporary dwellings must be shed and once again, if only for a few seconds, they face the daunting ocean naked. This precarious existence could lead to a life of hoarding, but instead they live as minimalist gypsies. Traveling simply, with only collections of barnacles and algae to represent the range of their rambles. Like the rangy mountain men of past generations they blaze solitary, self-sufficient paths through the sand and seaweed hunting for their livelihood. And like these men, this isolation is broken by yearly rowdy “rendezvous.” Here stories are exchanged, friendships renewed and what would a “rendezvous” be without a few brawls for shells and mates. But this holiday has its season and soon this intrepid adventurer of the ocean is off again. With only the shell on his back and the determination to live his own life the hermit crab rambles on.