How does this happen?

[Sergeant Pepper]

While diving at Cove 2 tonight, I came across a Kelp Crab that had both arms and both front legs torn off of it's body. The thing that struck me is that the crab didn't have one arm completely torn off and the other partially torn, all four apendages were equally missing right down to the body. I've seen crabs missing arms, but never to that degree.

[thelawgoddess]

perhaps some other creature was hungry ... but not *that* hungry?

[sparky]

LawGodess that was funy

I wat thinking maybe it was a forgetfull grab.

but your answer is so much better

Sparky

[.]

I only wanted a nibble.

[Sounder]

It must have been a hungry male who saw a female he wanted more!

[Grateful Diver]

While diving at Cove 2 tonight, I came across a Kelp Crab that had both arms and both front legs torn off of it's body. The thing that struck me is that the crab didn't have one arm completely torn off and the other partially torn, all four apendages were equally missing right down to the body. I've seen crabs missing arms, but never to that degree.

There's a lot of red rock crabs in Cove 2 ... some of them are very large, and all of them are rather aggressive.

I have watched a red rock crab rip the arms off a kelp crab and eat them. He didn't even have the manners to let go of the kelp crab while he was eating ... and I didn't feel that it was my place to interrupt his meal ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Burntchef]

sorry about that i ran out of tartar sauce, and lemon .

[thelawgoddess]

There's a lot of red rock crabs in Cove 2 ... some of them are very large, and all of them are rather aggressive.

I have watched a red rock crab rip the arms off a kelp crab and eat them. He didn't even have the manners to let go of the kelp crab while he was eating ... and I didn't feel that it was my place to interrupt his meal ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

man, that's harsh!!!

[Grateful Diver]

man, that's harsh!!!

It's just life in the ocean ... everything is ultimately both predator and prey ... and if a critter makes it through life avoiding the predators, they get it when it dies.

If we stayed down there long enough, the crabs would try to make a meal out of us too ... and they'd be competing with the starfish ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Sounder]

And the sixgills.

Speaking of sea stars - what's the deal with the big glowing stars? They actually appeared to be glowing... I've heard about this, but still find it very strange.

[Grateful Diver]

And the sixgills.

Speaking of sea stars - what's the deal with the big glowing stars? They actually appeared to be glowing... I've heard about this, but still find it very strange.

See my comment in the thread about the monolith ...

Seriously ... they're not really "glowing" ... they're reflecting your light back at you ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Sounder]

Yeah, I saw that but I didn't have my light on. I turned it off because it appeared to be glowing... then I got really close to it and it still appeared to be producing a soft glow. Not all of the same species of stars were glowing at equal depths either... am I getting narced at 60' now?