Crabby

A long standing ritual in the Klipper household is to go crab hunting on the beach in the dark.  You find the holes:

Stick your finger/hand/arm down the hole so as to keep track of it and dig out underneath.

If the crab is inside, your finger pushes on the shell enough to keep them from digging more (or pinching...).  These crabs are not huge, mind you.  Most fit well inside the palm of your hand.

We had a bonus the other night:  a Honu (Green Sea Turtle) the size of Dougie!  The pit that is on the left of the pic is what the turtle had dug earlier in the day.  This is what they dig when they lay eggs.  Not sure if this was a practice pit or not...

Sometimes we will see turtles or Monk Seals.  Always, we see crabs!  If they do not scurry off to their hole or into the ocean, they will shuffle down into the sand and bury themselves, leaving just their eyes above.

Starting the crabby shuffle

Halfway buried

Why do we dig for crabs?  When my parents lived in Hawaii (42 years ago!), my dad and his friend would come out, dig and catch crabs, boil them up and eat them like popcorn.  The first time they went, they had no idea what they were doing and brought mesh dive bags with them.  The crabs fell right through the holes.  So the took off their pants, tied knots in the legs and improvised!

Now, we just dig out the crab, let it run away and watch the kids squeal - not always with delight.  Sometimes it is hysteria when the crab makes a break.  Right for them and over their feet.  We certainly get a laugh out of it!

Stefan got the biggest surprise of his life when digging out a hole.  A wave washed in and took him from behind.  You would have thought a ninety-pound crab had pinched his bottom the way he launched up the beach.

We got a really good laugh out of that one!