Pacific Mole Crab

by Chloe

The Pacific Mole Crab is a kind of sand crab that is very small and gray. It can grow to be up to 35 mm long and 25 mm wide. The female is larger than a male and it may have bright orange eggs or short threads near the telson. The males are smaller than the female and they both can be tan too.

They live on sandy beaches from Alaska to Baja California.  They bury themselves in the sand.

The mole crab’s predators are fish, water birds, and shore birds. That is why they live underneath the sand.

In our Watershed class we measure their length, count how many there are, and chart the data. We also check to see if the females have eggs. We enter the data on the LiMPETS website.

I think mole crabs are so cool because of how they dig in the sand. They dig with their back legs, moving backwards. They dig so fast that if you look away and you look back they might seem to disappear. Their quickness makes them hide from their predators quickly.