Thousands of Tuna Crabs Have Invaded the Beaches of San Diego Bay

The thumb-sized crustaceans started washing ashore further up the California coast earlier this year, but turned up this week in San Diego in unusually larger numbers, officials said.

They’ve washed ashore periodically over the years because of any number of natural effects, but research scientist Michael Shane of the Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute in San Diego cited El Nino as the phenomenon that might have pushed the crabs up from their normal habitat far offshore.

The result is certain death and nothing can be done to save the crabs.

“The crabs start to die because the local waters are much cooler,” Shane told ABC News today. “Local animals have begun to eat the crabs and they have been found in the gut contents of sea lions, fish, and birds.”

The remaining carcasses will remain on the shore until they decompose or are swept back into the water.

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Foods Your Cat Should Never Eat

Dangerous Foods?
Because they're such picky eaters, we sometimes think cats know what’s best for them when it's time to eat. But the fact that they'll walk away from a piece of bad meat doesn't mean they'll bypass an open can of tuna. And that can of tuna can be just as dangerous. In fact, you may be surprised to learn some of the common foods your cats should never eat.

Click on thumbnails to enlarge.

                 


                 


                 


                 


           
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A Sea Turtle Caught in a Line - Gives Diver Who Rescued Him an Adorable Thank You (Video)

Not every story about sea life mistakenly caught in a net ends this beautifully, so it's important to recognize when one does.

According to Dominican Republic social news site Lifestyle Cabarete, dive partners Cameron Dietrich and Colin Sutton were out spearfishing for tuna off the coast of Mexico earlier this year when Dietrich noticed something was not quite right. A sea turtle had been caught in a line.

Dietrich immediately jumped in to save the turtle, working quickly to remove the mess of ropes around its left flipper. Sutton followed close behind, his GoPro camera on and ready to capture the rescue.

The turtle swam away once freed, but then, to the two divers' surprise, it circled back to Dietrich. For an incredible, breathtaking moment it rested inches above him in the water, close enough for Dietrich to reach out and hold it. It was almost as if the sea turtle was saying thank you.

The World Wildlife Fund names human fishing gear as the single greatest threat to sea turtles worldwide, so the fact that Dietrich and Sutton dived in means something. Most species of sea turtles are endangered, and it's going to take everyone, from recreational spearfishers to commercial fisheries, to move them back from the red.

And with any luck, that means we'll get more moments like this.

UPDATE: David Godfrey, executive director of The Sea Turtle Conservancy, said in an interview with HuffPost Green that the sea turtle’s circular swimming was probably the result of limited paralysis in its left flipper. Motion often comes back very quickly, he said, and was likely not a threat to the turtle.

The divers getting off the boat to help the turtle, he added, “was absolutely the right thing to do, absolutely the best thing that could happen in that situation.”

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