Coconut Crab Hunting

Coconut Crab Hunting (By Steve from S/V Lady Carolina)

Yesterday afternoon Tim, Craig, Louis and I braved the flies and went into shore to set up traps for coconut crabs. Apparently, whoever introduced flies to the Tuamotu’s did not want them to be alone, so he also introduced mosquitoes. I am not all that sure what the flies and the mosquitoes eat however they both have an impressively massive population. Perhaps they get together and potluck during the evenings. (I have not seen mosquitoes like this since being back in Calgary….they were pretty bad and we had to retreat for bug spray……well, and more beer of course.)

Given that we are not seasoned coconut crab hunters my only information was to split coconuts and stake them down to the ground with spikes so that the crabs do not drag them away. We spent about 1-1.5 hours finding crab holes, splitting coconuts and spiking them to the ground. There is no shortage of coconuts on this island. I bet that 99% of the vegetation is coconuts. We actually had a rough time finding trees suitable to make into spikes. After the traps were set, we returned to Exodus for our evening potluck.

A few hours later when it was dark, we ventured back on shore and quickly determined that flies cannot see well at night whereas the mosquitoes have excellent vision during any time of day.

After we bug doped up and started our trek with a 2.5-gallon plastic bucket, we walked towards the first trap. Perhaps the rum was the cause of the difficult walking, but I am going to suggest that walking on 1000’s of large ball bearings at night on uneven, rocky terrain was to blame. There are literally 1000’s of coconuts and associated palm leaves blanketing the forest(?) floor.

As we arrived at our first trap, we learned a couple of things.

1) Hermit crabs LOVE split coconuts.
2) There are as many hermit crabs on the island as coconuts.

Essentially, we spent 1-1.5 hours setting up hermit crab feeding stations. Well, just for good measure we threw a couple of the big ones into the bucket. You never know how good they taste until you try one.

After a little while we saw other crabs that were not hermit crabs. We have arrived!!! We found the crabs and they were relatively easy to spot and catch. There was some confusion and question as to whether or not these were coconut crabs however when we caught a couple they were running away with coconut in their mouths. Well, it was definitely a crab, and it was eating coconut soooooooo it makes sense that these are in fact coconut crabs. Off we go to catch more.

Soon the bucket was filling up with crabs that certainly did not want to be in the bucket. A 2.5-gallon bucket is not all that big, and the job of the bucket carrier was to shake, spin, beat down, chase and recapture the ones that got out. This was almost a full-time job and, in the end, if you could get the crabs mad at each other they would tangle up in a ball of pincers and hold each other down. How do you get a crab mad you ask? Personally, I found that shaking, spinning, beating them down and recapturing them did that plenty well. Every now and again one would spring free and had to be recaptured.

At about time that I figured out how to control the crab-mass Tim yelled out. “Holy crap, what is that?” At that point we all came over and he had his light shining on a fairly large 10-12″ long, 4″ wide vibrantly blue crab-lobster like thing! Aha!!!!! THIS MUST BE A COCONUT CRAB!!!!!

We all concurred that this WAS the coconut crab that we have been looking for. The only problem is that we did not have any bucket room. The solution? All of our work getting the other crabs was lost and we dumped the crab-mass. They did sit there in a pile for a few seconds until they realized that they were not in the bucket and then they scrambled for cover. A neat sight to see. They all put their opened claws up in the air and ran sideways while saying “aye, aye, aye!”

We then put the coconut crab in the bucket and proceeded to look for more. We looked for a while with no luck and then decided to cross the island to the windward shore to look for lobsters at low(ish) tide.

As we moved towards the windward shore the vegetation turned from 99% coconut trees to 99% brush. More like a wall. While traveling through the brush-wall we discovered another interesting thing. Whoever introduced flies and mosquitoes apparently knew that this was a mistake. I am not sure if he tried little mosquito traps or fly paper and got poor results or not but the end solution to the original mosquito and fly problem was to introduce spiders. Many spiders. 1000’s of spiders.

These are special spiders with HUGE abdomens full of silk. Or they used to be at least until they made their numerous webs. The webs were no match for our might, and we easily smashed through web after web after web with our faces.

On the other side we found the remnants of a (40-100′?) steel boat that was washed up really high (inches deep water). Pretty sobering to see such old thick plates of steel broken and twisted and laying in pieces on the reef that we were walking on. Mother nature sure is tough at times. Perhaps the guy that introduced the flies, mosquitoes and spiders was on that boat and this was his punishment? I certainly hope so.

On the other side we did not see lobsters but lots of eels, small fish and something big that splashed a lot and swam away. I did not see it, so I am not sure what it was. In any case, tromping through a shallow reef at night with a flashlight and seeing something big splash in the water and only seeing a shadow leave was an entertaining adventure. After that experience the files now have something to eat.

During this walk through the trees, brush, reef our brightly color crab hung happily on the bucket, right at the top just sort of hanging out.

We decided to make our way back to the boat. Instead of returning the way that we came we decided to try a different route. Great success, it took us 10 min to get through the brush and onto the leeward side back to the dingy. The island is shaped like a teardrop.

We took the crab back to the boat to let everybody see it. (Not exactly our original plan, arriving back at the boat with 1 crab for 12 people after 16-man hours) We took pictures of the crab (which is a really gorgeous animal….well, for a crab). Poked it for a while, played with it and since it was the only one we caught we decided that there are clearly not an abundance of them, so we returned it back to the jungle to let it do its thing. I am sure that he is at the fly/mosquito/spider potluck telling all of his friends “You are not going to believe what happened to me last night!”