El Nino is bringing some real warm water to the coast of southern California. Along with the warm water, a bunch - like thousands - of little tuna crabs are floating in, too.
We went kayaking on June 14th and saw a lot of these little guys bobbing around in the water. We had no idea what they were. They swim backwards, so they look kind of like squids in the water. We beached the kayak for lunch, and when we got out of the boat, the beach was red and covered in these things. Kind of gross and very strange. Still, we didn't know what we were witnessing. I didn't know until Monday when I heard a story on NPR explaining the red masses coming ashore. The warm water has brought them north, and they are covering the beaches.
We went down to the beach on the next Wednesday to see how it was looking, and by then, it was just a lot of dead crabs and pieces of dead crabs. And wow, did they stink. I found a few still whole for some photos.
They are creepy, but kind of interesting. They have alien eyes. And pinchers that pinch. :)
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