Environmental News

Thousands Of Red Tuna Crabs Wash Ashore California Beaches

Image licensed via shutterstock

Huntington Beach and Imperial Beach in Southern California have faced an influx of approximately 1,000 tuna crabs that have washed ashore. The crabs are usually found closer to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, but the Orange County Register has stated that they may have come north due to the after effects of El Nino, including currents and warm water.

These crabs that are bright red in color, are usually one to three inches long, and look a bit like crawfish. Though unlike crawfish, they are not good to eat because they have very little meat on them. Once dead, they also smell terrible.

Talking with the OC Register, dog trainer Jake McGee, whose golden retrievers were not in the least bothered by the crabs, wanted to know if the crabs would make a good meal, saying, ‘What’s the deal, are they edible?’

What’s the deal, are they edible? Are they served at the restaurants here?

Meanwhile Thomas Flores and his girlfriend Jackie Doroteo did not want to eat the crabs, finding them ‘kind of disgusting’ instead according to Flores.

There’s a whole long line of them. I think it’s kind of disgusting.

CBS Local reports that a woman called Katie Glover who was also visiting one of the beaches for the first time, spoke to the Register about her encounter with some of these crabs. She said she got pinched, and that her dog may have ‘got pinched by one first’.

It was on my foot. We were walking, and my little Yorkie ran past it and cried. I think he got pinched by one first.

This isn’t the first time crabs have washed on shore where they shouldn’t be. Last June saw a similar thing happen, when hundreds of thousands of crabs washed ashore onto beaches. Recently, crabs have also washed ashore on Seal Beach and Newport. Although this has been happening in the last few years, these areas in Southern California hadn’t seen crabs before in over a decade.

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