|
|
Albunea
paretii -- Mole Crab, Sunset Beach, NC, 04/05/10
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Banded
Porcelain Crab, Petrolisthes galathinus, Sunset Beach,
NC, 01/19/10
|
|
|
|
|
Spineback
Hairy Crab, Pilumnus sayi, Sunset Beach, NC, 10/20/09;
microscope photo
|
Green
Porcelain Crab, Petrolisthes armatus, Sunset Beach, NC,
10/20/09; microscope photo
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calico
Box Crab, Hepatus epheliticus, Sunset Beach, NC, 10/16/09
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blue
Crabs, Callinectes sapidus
|
|
|
|
|
The
Tidal Spray Crab, Plagusia depressa, Cherry Grove Beach,
SC, 10/07/07. Because the spray or splash zone is only splashed
by spray and rarely covered by water, the only marine animals
found there are those able to live outside water and while exposed
to air.
|
|
|
|
|
Sargassum
Crab, Portunus sayi, Sunset Beach, 07/11/07
|
|
|
|
|
Mottled
Purse Crab, Persephona mediterranea
|
|
|
|
|
Sponge
Mottled Purse Crab, Persephona mediterranea, ready to
release millions of eggs
|
|
|
|
|
Iridescent
Swimming Crab, Portunus gibbesii, Sunset Beach, NC, 01/10/07
|
|
|
|
|
Iridescent
Swimming Crab, Portunus gibbesii, a relative of the blue
crab -- surfacing in left photo
|
|
|
|
|
Lady
Crab, Ovalipes ocellatus, found under the sand on Sunset
Beach, NC, 01/06/07
|
Speckled
Crab, Arenaeus cribrarius, found under the sand on Sunset
Beach, NC
|
|
|
|
|
Speckled
Crab, Arenaeus cribrarius, Sunset Beach, NC, 10/25/07
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ghost
Crabs, Ocypode quadrata,and Ghost Crab Hole
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sand
Fiddler Crabs, Uca pugilator -- those in the lower photo
were on Sunset Beach, NC, 06/07/08
|
|
|
|
|
A 5-year-old
boy with a Sand Fiddler crab
|
|
|
|
|
Live
Spider Crab
|
Spider
Crab under water
|
|
|
|
|
Spider
Crabs, live, rescued from ghost crab pot, Sunset Beach, NC,
03/08/09
|
|
|
|
|
Spider
Crab on Cannonball Jellyfish, Edisto Island, SC, 05/08
|
Spider
Crab on Anemone in aquarium, 05/02/07
|
|
|
|
Cherry-Striped
Porcelain Crab, Petrolisthes galathinus, in my aquarium
|
|
|
|
|
Spineback
Hairy Crab, Pilumnus sayi
|
|
|
Stone
Crabs
Stone Crabs
are how my new life began. In late summer 2004 I sent two
photos of a Stone Crab to our endearing and encouraging newspaper
editor via email simply to share them because the light of
the sinking sun was spectacular. He liked the photos enough
to publish them. Knowing that I could take equally good photos
of other animals and tired of collecting seashells, I began
to photograph various marine animals. Researchers throughout
the country graciously identified species for me. The editor
frequently published my photos. Yet I had much to learn. Within
two months of leaping into this new-found adventure, I picked
up a huge Stone Crab in order to rinse sand off of him to
get good photos. He grasped my right index finger with both
claws. I screamed for help because I could not free my finger,
went to the ER for stitches, and then had an infection and
a month of occupational therapy. Although I still pick up
and rinse off many animals, I use better judgment. This stingray
is an example. http://www.okeefes.org/Photo_Journal/May_2008/May_2008.htm.
I still have not learned complete restraint as the photos
of an American Alligator on this page demonstrate: http://www.okeefes.org/Photo_Journal/March_2008/March_2008.htm.
I was dangerously close to it when I took the photos.
Photographing
animals was only the beginning. I began collecting live specimens
for aquaria and dead ones for museums and universities. At
each step of my journey, I learned more. As my website grew
larger with photos of marine life, my family photos were bumped
to a second website, www.okeefes.info.
Soon Google began to use scores, perhaps hundreds, of my photos.
I began to receive requests for my photos from educational
facilities such as state parks, universities, aquaria, museums
-- and recently a national park. I receive photos of animals
to identify and questions about animals. In the process I
simultaneously learned more about photography and also became
involved with coastal birds, both injured and dead. I became
very involved with two animals, Horseshoe Crabs and Knobbed
Whelks. Each fall I collected 50 Horseshoe Crab exoskeletons
or molts that I donated to schools, aquaria and museums. One
of my photos of a live Knobbed Whelk is on the cover of a
book of poetry!
Over time
my kitchen became a mini-laboratory. I purchased a microscope,
scientific sieves for rinsing seaweed in order to extract
animals, Petrie dishes and an illuminating magnifier. It enables
me to find a hundred times more specimens within seaweed,
on sponges and on dried sea drift that I bring home, sieve
and rinse, and then dry. In containers filled with alcohol
I save minute brittle stars and sea spiders. I freeze hundreds
of animals such as microscopic amphipods, isopods and worms
in sandwich bags with sea water to give to researchers.
People,
especially children, have been the best part of my experience.
Although now I only show them juvenile Stone Crabs such as
the one below in the right-hand column, I share with them
the variety of live specimens in my containers -- Sea Stars,
Sand Dollars and Sea Cucumbers, whelks, Shark Eyes and Banded
Tulips, and Spider Crabs, Sand Fiddler Crabs and Speckled
Crabs. Other species are Sea Whips, sponges, Sea Pansies,
Colonial and Solitary Tunicates and egg cases. I could not
list everything. The joy children have holding the animals,
the photos their parents take of them doing so, and what I
am able to teach them about marine life have made this a wondrous
experience, one that began with two photos of a Stone Crab.
I have sent
boxes of specimens to educators and biologists. Below is what
one educator recently wrote after using the sponges, sea stars,
sand dollars, sea whips, etc. at a school.:
"I
want you to know that the presentation was absolutely wonderful.
The kids thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish you could have seen
their faces when I told them that the specimens were theirs.
They could not wait to get close to them. I took a picture
of each class standing around the table with the specimens
laid out. I kept a few smaller crab specimens to use with
my grandson's class in preschool. The only request I have
is that, if you ever get another horseshoe crab, may I please
have it to give to that school. I told them the one you sent
was mine and that I will take it to other schools. I promised
them that if I ever got another I would bring it to them."
"I started out with one class scheduled. then two more
teachers asked if I could present on the same day to theirs.
I ended up with six classes and will go back next Tuesday
for five more. Thanks to you it was a major success. I told
them all about you and how you walk the beaches taking pictures
and saving these items for schools and others. The school
will be sending you a thank you for the donations and I will
send the pictures after I take pictures with the other five
classes next week. Thank you so much for all of your help
and the generous donations of the marine specimens for this
school."
This is my life. I have never had so much fun! Besides helping
countless people, I experience the excitement and thrill of
each new species, each good photo, and the delight of the
persons that I encounter.
|
|
|
|
|
Pilumnus
sayi with Stone Crab claws
|
Stone
Crab, Menippe mercenaria, juvenile
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A 6.5
inch long pincer, not unlike the two that tore my finger
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stone
Crabs, Menippe mercenaria
|
|
|
|
|
Lady
Crab Shells, Ovalipes ocellatus
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calico
Crab Shells
|
|
|
|
|
Stone
Crab Eye, Menippe
mercenaria
|
Lady
Crab Eye, Ovalipes ocellatus
|
|
|
|
|
Striped
or Thinstripe
Hermit Crab, Clibanarius vittatus, Sunset Beach, 07/11/07
|
|
|
|
|
Thinstripe
Hermit Crab, Clibanarius vittatus, in aquarium, 09/15/07
|
Thinstripe
Hermit Crabs, Clibanarius vittatus, in aquarium, 05/20/07
|
|
|
A Hermit Crab Takes a
Walk
On May 8,
2008, I saw what looked like a Knobbed Whelk walking on Edisto
Island, SC. It was moving far faster than a whelk would move.
Zooming in, I saw that it was a Thinstrip Hermit Crab, Clibanarius
vittatus, in an empty whelk shell. It was moving parallel
to the ocean. After taking the photos below, I carried to
the edge of the water.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flat-clawed
Hermit Crab, Pagurus pollicaris, without a home
|
|
|
|
|
Flat-clawed
Hermit Crab, Pagurus pollicaris, in Knobbed Whelk Shell
|
Probably
a Long-wristed Hermit Crab, Pagurus longicarpus; if not, it
is a Flat-clawed Hermit Crab
|
|
Horseshoe
Crabs, Limulus polyphemus
Horseshoe Crabs are not
actual crabs. They are one of three groups of marine arthropods:
Horseshoe Crabs, Sea Spiders and Crustaceans. Crustaceans are
true crabs. At www.horseshoecrab.org
you can learn about Horseshoe Crabs and find an opportunity
to support research. Like crustaceans, Horseshoe Crabs have
six pairs of appendages. The first, very small pair is used
to put ground-up food into the crab's mouth. The next five pairs
are for walking. The first of those five, i.e., the second pair
of appendages, is larger in males and is used to grasp a female
during spawning.
There are two very important
facts to know about Horseshoe Crabs. They have existed for hundreds
of millions of years, even before dinosaurs, and are sometimes
considered the oldest living animal on earth. Their blue blood
is critical for testing medications during development for endotoxins
prior to the drugs' approval. In some parts of the United States,
such as Delaware, thousands of Horseshoe Crabs come ashore to
spawn on a single evening. On June 1, 2007, under a full moon,
an estimated 463,587 Horseshoe Crabs spawned along the beaches
of the Delaware Bay. In contrast, I rarely find a live Horseshoe
Crab on Sunset Beach, NC. A colleague in Alabama has not seen
one in 10 years.
About six months ago I
saw a group of adults far out on a sandbar watching something
in the water. Every few minutes they would jump, obviously startled.
I walked out to see what they were watching. It could have been
anything, even a seabird needing rescue. Sure enough, it was
a very large female Horseshoe Crab, at least 10 inches wide.
She was so heavy that after I picked her up, I asked one of
the men to help me turn her over. I told the folks what it was
and identified the book gills and appendages.
Below are two photos of
a large female Horseshoe Crab. Her book gills have been eaten
by other animals. An arrow marks the first, small pair of appendages.
|
|
|
|
|
Shown
above are two scars and a thumprint on the same female Horseshoe
Crab's upper carapace. Males, much smaller, ride on the backs
of females as the females crawl onto the sand to deposit eggs.
Males deposit semen on top of the eggs. Because each female
repeatedly carries males, she develops scars on the left and
right from their large from claws as well as an abrasion called
a "thumbprint" where the center of the males' carapaces
touch her shell.
|
|
|
|
Horseshoe
Crab eggs in a shell 12 inches wide, Edisto Island, SC, May
2008. I found the crab dead with appendages and book gills eaten
away.
|
This
is the shell on the left. It is 29 inches long from the front
edge of the carapace to the tip of the tail.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Horseshoe
Crab, live, Sunset Beach, NC, 12/14 and 12/15/06. There are
mollusks attached on the top and bottom. It was very heavy
due to its size and the sand inside its carapace, which was
at least 10 inches wide.
|
|
|
|
|
Horseshoe
crab molts found on Sunset Beach, NC, 11/03/06
|
|
|
|
|
Large
live Horseshoe Crab, shell 10 inches wide
|
|