Guernsey crustacea
More images of crustacea can be viewed in the Belle Greve Bay, Guernsey gallery at http://sealord.smugmug.com/gallery/3514797#139888289
Columbus crab Planes minutus on flotsam
On 14 December 2006 Guernsey crab fisherman, Chris Marquis, potting for edible crabs, Cancer pagurus, found a buoy covered in goose barnacles, Lepas anatifera, floating in the sea in the Big Russell - a passage between the islands of Herm and Sark in the Bailiwick of Guernsey.
In amongst the mass of goose barnacles he saw a Columbus crab, Planes minutus, which he gave to me. I kept the crab in an aquarium.
On 23 December 2006 on the strand-line of the sea shore of the north-east coast of Guernsey I collected a rubber Kito Sports sandal, size 44, which was covered in small goose barnacles.
I brought this sandal home and used it as a floating home for the crab.
The crab lived on the sandal for a number of days before the barnacles began to die.
This crab also known as a Sargassum, Gulf weed or turtle crab, lives on flotsam and under the carapace of some turtles in the North Atlantic.
A few of these crabs turn up towards the end of the year in the western English Channel.
A number of these crabs washed up on the south coast of England at the same time.
File No. 141206 5057
File size: 4.63 MB Jpeg
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