Rebecca - Mole Crabs

My first Mole Crab!

I went for another practice run last night to try and catch some mole crabs. I got all the way to Tom Renick Park and realized I left my rake to catch them at home! I decided to just walk the beach and work on learning how to spot mole crabs in the sand. I walked north from the beach ramp about 500 feet and decided to stand out where the waves break, the swash zone, and just observe for awhile. My helpers decided to play in the sand farther up the beach and after a few minutes my son yelled out that he had found a mole crab! I scooped the little crab up and took a picture. Then I took a 1/2 cup sediment sample of the sand he was digging in. I dug around the same area but was only able to find one other mole crab so I continued my walk of the beach.
      I walked a third of a mile, occasionally pausing to look in the swash zone, before I turned back. I was a little disappointed that I had only found two mole crabs but I started thinking about when I was a kid and would dig them up at the beach. I remembered that my sister and I would step on the moist sand above the swash zone and then look for bubbles when we lifted our feet. At this point, I had walked back to where the first mole crabs had been found so I gave that a try. I saw bubbles and then dug a little bit. I was able to find some very small mole crabs. I took another 1/2 cup sediment sample and counted how many mole crabs where in the area.
      I was surprised that the mole crabs were not in the swash zone because everything I read about them indicated that's where I would find them. I thought about it on the drive home and came to the conclusion that because it was high tide going out, the mole crabs may have decided to just stay burrowed in that spot until high tide came back up to them.
     My sediment samples are drying out at home so I can sieve them and learn what size sediment the mole crabs were digging in. I'm trying to determine if the mole crabs prefer a certain grain size and whether or not beach nourishment, which can bring in different grain size sediments, affects the mole crabs.