I'm Coyote Peterson and I want to show you something
cool, but it's gonna be one pinchy situation.
Here we go.
One, two, three.
(upbeat jungle music)
The Pacific coast is an expansive beauty.
And if you head down to the shores of Half Moon Bay at low
tide, there's a world of biodiversity
that you may encounter.
Alright, so here's something pretty interesting.
As we're waiting for the water to recede back and the
tide pools to become exposed, this is what's left behind.
This giant mass of nastiness, this is kelp.
And you aren't here with me right now but I promise you,
this stuff absolutely stinks.
(rushing water)
Looks like the tide's coming back in.
So, you can eat kelp, some people do, but if
you were here and you stuck your face in this
and you could smell it, it's like a rotten fish market.
Certainly not something that I want in my salad.
Alright, let's head up this way and see if we can find
some cool creatures.
From sea anemones, that feels so cool, all those little
tentacles are so sticky.
To prickle back fish, the tide pools are alive with
friendly animals.
Though some of the local inhabitants aren't quite as
well mannered as, let's say, a sea star.
And if you flip over some rocks, watch your fingers
because you might get more than you bargained for.
Down here nestled in these rocks is a purple shore crap.
I'm gonna gently move some of these rocks back and
try to get ahold of him.
He is pretty good size.
One thing about these crabs is that they're very
difficult to handle.
And there's probably a pretty good chance I'm gonna
get pinched.
Alright, got him.
Look at that.
There it is.
That is the purple shore crab.
You notice how that crab is blowing bubbles?
He's not doing that to be funny.
He's actually doing it to aerate his gills.
And if you didn't know that crabs have gills, they do.
All these little bubbles, because he's out of the water
right now, as they pop, push oxygen back in through
his gills.
Now, the reason that they're called the purple shore
crab, as you can see, he is very purple in coloration.
The carapace, which is the top of the crab, is purple,
and then the claws up front here have very distinct
light violet color with darker purple spots.
These little crabs are very important part of the ecosystem
because they become food for a lot of the other animals
out here.
Primarily birds.
So at low tide, like this when the water has receded back,
the birds will flock in and look for these crabs stranded
in shallow pools.
Now, fortunately for these little crabs, they're able
to climb under rocks and hide.
But if you're human and you come out here to the tide pools,
all you need to do is flip over a couple of rocks and you're
gonna find tons of these little crabs.
Now one way to not get pinched by these crabs is
to just gently let them rest on the palm of your hand.
You want to move one hand to the next so that you don't
apply any pressure and that way you avoid getting pinched.
Now you're looking at this little crab and you're probably
thinking to yourself, man that looks like one voracious
little predator.
But they're mostly vegetarians out here feeding on
sea lettuce and occasionally they'll scavenge on a dead
carcass of some sort.
Now, these front pincers are actually used as defense.
I'm sure you're thinking to yourselves, Coyote, you gonna
get pinched by that crab?
Why not?
Let's see how powerful it really is.
Alright, here we go.
You ready?
One, two, three.
Ow, oh, oh my goodness.
That is a serious pinch right there.
Oh he's gonna get me with that claw too.
Wow, look at that.
I can only imagine what it would be like, ah, to get
pinched by a crab bigger than this.
This is one of the smaller species of shore crabs that
we have out here.
But if you were ever to go out into the tide pools and
trying to catch one of these crabs and you are pinched
like this, don't panic.
Try to tough through the pain and gently set it back
down into the water.
Watch this.
As soon as he's down there, he will let go of my finger.
Just like that.
As soon as he felt that he was back in his environment
and he was comfortable, he let go and went about his way.
Pretty cool getting up close with the purple shore crab.
Let's head down the beach and see what else we can find.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be Brave.
Stay Wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out this episode where we wncounter
even more tide pool creatures.
And don't forget, subscribe to join me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.