Every year when we go to the beach for our vacation week, among the most popular of activities (aside from swimming, exploring the old shipwreck, building sand castles, riding bikes) is collecting hermit crabs. The kids will grab a bucket from under the cottage porch -- hopefully one that doesn't have a hole in the bottom of it -- and take it down to the beach hoping for low tide. When the water rolls back over the rocks, and the tide pools are open, there is an intense hunt for hermit crabs.
I never shared this fascination of collecting tiny sea creatures and putting them in a bucket, and I really don't understand it. I confess, I'm trying to break my children of this habit, as well.
Why deprive their curious little minds of this opportunity to scientifically explore and interact with nature? Because it's wanton murder, pure and simple.
You see, once we collect the crab snails, and we just HAVE to bring them back to the cottage -- so they'll be safe. In a bucket of a dozen snails, at least 2-3 are dead by morning. The next day, we invariably forget to return said hermit crabs on our daily sojourn to the beach ... and by the time we remember them later that afternoon, the remaining lot are dead.
This is followed by watery eyes and tears at the loss of our new pets, and the ritual "returning to the sea" of nature's bounty. And although we go through this ritual every year (sometimes 2-3 times during the same vacation week), I never seem able to convince them of the folly of their ways. Beach time is simply open hunting season on Hermit Crabs.
1 comment:
Having successfully avoided this beach activity for 5 years, I finally had to give into Maxwell's demands. We left them at the beach though- I instituted a mandatory catch and release program.
Have you ever had one scramble out of its shell? freaky
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