Hermit crabs get free housing on Japanese beaches

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Well on NHK (Japanese public TV) last night I watched a very cool but very disturbing segment on the plight of Japanese hermit crabs. Japan is home to dozens of species of crabs in all hues and shapes. While the big ones are being overfished and consumed on crab-eating theme tours the hermit crabs are suffering habitat loss as Japan's Land and transportation ministry paves serene beaches. While fed to the public as a way to fight evil mother nature, concrete beaches actually speed erosion.

So imagine crabs trying to climb up a 5 meter concrete wall with their lives, and the survival of their species depending on it. The other part was how crabs find bottle caps and other plastic refuse and use it as a kind of ghetto-fied shell. A few crabs in the show were viewed drowned in tar balls leaked by large oil tankers in pacific shipping lanes and unluckily washed up on beaches in Okinawa prefecture's beaches.

It was a dissatisifying show, but stirred my activist urges once over.