Spider Crabs!

Hi everyone, my first week at the Pier's Park Sailing Center has been great. My group and I went in on Tuesday and met all of the kids. We played name games which was pretty fun and many other games like "capture the flag" in which we split up into teams. The kids were all very smart and I was surprised at how much most of them knew about the harbor and things like how to use a fishing rod, how to hold a crab; which was all very new to me. On the first day we caught so many crabs/spider crabs! One of the little's girls named Emma was surprisingly very good at picking up the crabs, while I was still trying to get over my fear of being pinched. It was kind of funny actually, she would see me struggling and being hesitant about grabbing the crabs, then she would help me out and show me how she picked them up. After the first day, I can say I got way more comfortable with holding the crabs and showing them to all the kids.

Some of The Crabs/Spider Crabs We Caught

On Wednesday, we brought all of the kids down to the dock and many of them rushed to set up the crab traps with bait and throw them down. They couldn't wait to see how many crabs we would catch that day.  I was actually pretty excited too. They would ask every 5 minutes or so "can we pull up the crab traps now?!" "how about now?!" After about 10 minutes it's time to pull it up and as the trap comes out of the water, BOOM. After spending the day catching small little cute spider crabs, there it was. The biggest most muddy looking spider crab ever. 

        

Huge Spider Crab We Captured

 All the kids on the dock immediately ran to the huge spider crab that seemed to be tangled in the trap. Then finally Ary managed to detach the crab and of course it didn't fit into any of the touch tanks so we decided to try a bucket just for this special spider crab. The kids were all so amazed by this spider crab, this spider crab was indeed the mother of all spider crabs. 

I really can't wait to see what other amazing sea creatures we'll catch next! See you soon! - Rusenny