It will soon be nesting season for the horseshoe crab and local volunteers will be heading to the Delaware beaches for the annual observation and recording of nesting sites.
I considered joining the volunteers until I learned that the crab tracking is done at night. That just gave me the chills.
Horseshoe crabs are some of the creepiest creatures I've ever seen. (You can click here to see a picture.) They make me think of the unspeakable creatures that haunt H.P. Lovecraft novels. In fact they would be the perfect creature for a Lovecraft novel. They're a remnant of the dinosaur era and, though called crabs, are actually closer to the spider family.
The thought of combing the beach at night, flashlight in hand, and tiptoeing through a mass of hard shelled spiders with razor-like tails is the thing nightmares are made of.
It's bad enough that I now realize I'm likely to be stepping on these spider crabs when I wade into the waters of the Delaware coastline.
Maybe I'll just stick to watching the other swimmers from now on.
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