Invasion

Many of us have heard of huge red king crabs (in the far east they are called Kamchatka crabs). But very few people actually saw them alive. Most people get acquainted with crabs when they start to eat them, or cook for a salad.



In a living or at least inseparable form they are usually seen only by the inhabitants of the regions where these crabs live. In fact, these crabs are quite a few species. In addition to the Kamchatka crab itself, very often they are also called a pair of related species, such as the blue king crab and the spiny king crab. (all photos here of Paralithodes brevipes or spiny king crabs.)

The name "king" is given to this crab not in vain. Not only for the taste, but for the size. It can be more than one and a half meters the "swing" of the legs. Well, that is, as the scope of human hands.



So, now let's imagine that such crabs, with almost a meter-long claw, are swarming around you. That is, there are hundreds and thousands of them. The whole bottom is a single living mass, in many layers consisting of crabs. It was this phenomenon that happened to me to see near Staropchkov Island near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.



We had planned several dives there, but because of the weather we barely had time to do one. And I had to leave in the rather difficult conditions of an impending storm. They barely got out on the boat dangling from side to side. But what was underwater worth it. Although at first I did not see anything special. Many stones at a relatively shallow depth. Then there's anemones and jellyfish. And visibility is below average.



After a few minutes, the jellyfish around became more and more.
And many of them already barely swam. And some seemed to settle slowly to the bottom. A little further the clusters became larger. And almost every niche between the stones was a bunch of half-living jellyfish.

Further more. Many jellyfish did not even move. Their parts floated everywhere in the water, from which visibility fell almost to zero. It is visible all the same was on 1-2 meters. But because of the huge number of particles in the water, it was almost impossible to photograph.

And then I saw a crab. First one and he jerked the jellyfish with the claws. Then I saw more and more ...



And then I realized that further out of the darkness of the water looms a whole mountain of crabs. They were everywhere. And everywhere there were those scraps of jellyfish. To shoot in the "epicenter" there was no possibility.
But even a little bit aside, I had to make every effort to have at least something to see. Well, the crabs seeing the approaching photographer almost closely, cockily put forward very impressive claws.



In the end, I actually just popped the camera into the crab and clicked on the descent.
Then at the bottom I did not yet know that we would not have another opportunity to continue photo-shooting. Probably it was possible to try to shoot a little more. The truth is then not the fact that we managed to escape so successfully from the storm. And so I still do not know what caused such a crowd of crabs at the bottom. And is this connected with the death of jellyfish? Especially since none of my partners have seen anything like this under the water.



Well, on the boat, almost everyone was sorry that they did not take a single crab with them) All the same they are fantastically tasty!)

Russia Far East, Kamchatka

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