{"id":880,"date":"2008-10-09T22:30:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T02:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2008-10-31T17:45:50","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T21:45:50","slug":"rescuing-a-crabby-hermit-while-others-chase-a-manatee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=880","title":{"rendered":"Rescuing a Crabby Hermit (While Others Chase a Mermaid Manatee)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Turtle Journal team ventured to Dennis today to document the wayward manatee that has somehow wandered from Florida up the Atlantic Coast and through Cape Cod Canal\u00c2\u00a0to become\u00c2\u00a0trapped by cold bay water in picturesque Sesuit Harbor near the biceps of Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 We arrived about ten minutes too late to spy the manatee which had headed higher upstream to avoid the rush of chilly bay water flushed into Sesuit Harbor with the rising tide.\u00c2\u00a0 The story from the harbormaster says that a special C-130 is winging its way to the Cape and a team will “rescue” the manatee this weekend, so it can be transported back to sunny Florida.\u00c2\u00a0 We also learned that special food had been dispatched and would arrive anon to add more zest to this warm water creature stuck in Cape Cod fall.\u00c2\u00a0 News crews had flocked to this tiny hamlet to tell the tale of a Great Manatee Rescue.\u00c2\u00a0 The following YouTube piece appeared on Cape Cod Times on-line.<\/p>\n

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Manatee in Sesuit Harbor in Dennis on Cape Cod<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Given a doe-eyed sea cow in the area, it’s not an easy task to pitch the rescue of a crabby hermit.\u00c2\u00a0 Mon dieu!\u00c2\u00a0 No one ever accused a flat-clawed hermit crab (Pagurus pollicaris) <\/em>of the crime of cuteness.\u00c2\u00a0 Who cares whether such a shiftless critter that scavenges its own home survives?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, the answer to that question\u00c2\u00a0is the Turtle Journal cares, especially if we can get good footage.<\/p>\n

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Flat-Clawed Hermit Crab in Fractured Whelk Shell<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We happened across this hermit crab, the lone survivor of a predatory seagull that had been slurping crabs from their adopted homes in whelk shells.\u00c2\u00a0 A scattering of empty shells lay among the rocky shore of Silvershell Beach off Sippican Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 This one particular shell had been dropped from great height by the seagull, cracking the shell in multiple locations and exposing the crab to depredation.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily for the crab, but not for the seagull, we arrived just in time to interrupt the process.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, its home was destroyed and the compressed shell had lodged the hermit crab so tightly that it couldn’t squirm out to find a new home.\u00c2\u00a0 But give a human a heavy rock and it can work miracles that even a seagull can’t accomplish!<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Meet the Crabby Hermit<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that we had removed it from its fractured shell, we owed this crabby hermit a new home.\u00c2\u00a0 The seagull had left us two choices of whelk shells just about the same size as its former home.\u00c2\u00a0 Not being a crab ourselves, we placed the two\u00c2\u00a0whelk shells\u00c2\u00a0in the water equally distant from Crabby, but we nudged it a bit toward the shell on the\u00c2\u00a0left that seemed through a human eye the nicer home.\u00c2\u00a0 Wrong.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Crabby Hermit Rejects the Human’s Favorite for a Home<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, clearly even a crabby hermit has its standards and the home we had favored didn’t meet them.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps the whelk had too many slipper shells (Crepidula fornicata<\/em>) that might irritate its tender abdomen as the hermit crab tucked its largeness into the tight quarters of its new prospective home.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever the reason, our rescued hermit crab finally felt sufficiently\u00c2\u00a0comfortable with the second whelk shell to snuggle into its new home, protected once again from predators.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Crabby Picks a New Home<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Was it too much to ask for a simple thank you?\u00c2\u00a0 I guess so.\u00c2\u00a0 But then again, with a little anthropomorphic delusion, we can see Crabby waving its broad claw as its disappears under the rising tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, it must have been waving.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, something was waving.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t call them waves for nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Do they?<\/p>\n

Epilogue:<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 And the mermaid\u00c2\u00a0was rescued, too, on Saturday morning, October 11th, 2008 from Sesuit Harbor in Dennis, Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 This animal sets the record of the furthest north that a manatee has ever been documented.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, yes.\u00c2\u00a0 Dennis is a merman.<\/p>\n

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Manatee Rescued from Sesuit Harbor in Cape Cod Bay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Turtle Journal team ventured to Dennis today to document the wayward manatee that has somehow wandered from Florida up the Atlantic Coast and through Cape Cod Canal\u00c2\u00a0to become\u00c2\u00a0trapped by cold bay water in picturesque Sesuit Harbor near the biceps of Cape Cod.\u00c2\u00a0 We arrived about ten minutes too late to spy the manatee which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[564,567,95,434,571,579,581,572,573,563,568,560,575,562,569,561,574,11,577,565,578,400,580,566,110,576,570],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}