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N.J. tourists scuttle to shore for a different sort of ghost hunt
Published: Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Ghost tours of old buildings are popular in resort towns, but the only residents of the twilight zone you're likely to see in southern New Jersey are ghost crabs.These dune crabs with 2-inch shells are caught be-tween their ancient home in the sea and their new one on land - and not completely at home in either.Ghost crabs cannot swim - they have no swim fins like blue-claw crabs. All of their feet are pointed for quick running and digging.They breathe air, but through gills that must be kept moist. Like tourists when the ocean water is cold, ghost crabs stand in the wave wash a bit and then move back up the beach.And although ghost crabs nest on land, the females release their eggs into the water, where they hatch and live as larvae before coming ashore as adults.
main invisible, with their color adapted to the shade of sand where they live. Fleeing sideways on 10 legs and guided by night vision from oversized eyes, they are nearly impossible to catch.Finding them and catching them is a game that has become popular in Cape May, where the Nature Center leads weekly field trips in pursuit of ghost crabs."When you shine a flashlight at the water's edge, you see these ghostly objects in the wash," Paige Cunningham, the naturalist who leads the trips, said last week. "You see them go in a little bit, but as the wave recedes, they're running up the beach."One can be surrounded by small ghost crabs and not realize it until the "sand" suddenly starts moving away from you, she said.Ghost crabs live in burrows 2 to 3 feet deep in the dune, with the youngest, most vulnerable crabs nearest the high-water mark so a dip in the waves is closer and safer.During the day, the crabs absorb water from the sand. They have fine hairs at the base of their legs that wick moisture to their gills.Their burrows protect them from weather extremes. They close up the entrance on hot days, and can spend six weeks in it during the winter, Cun-
ningham said."I've seen them out here
in December if it's warm enough," she said.Despite their modest size, ghost crabs are the top carnivore in their dune-front habitat, eating mainly clams, beach fleas and smaller crabs that filter the water for food.Cunningham said one field trip got to watch a ghost crab devour a very young Fowler's toad, the kind frequently found in suburban yards.Such opportunistic feeding has given the ghost crab a bad reputation among conservationists. There are reports of ghost crabs eating very young piping plover chicks - which nest nearby in Cape May - and eggs and nestlings of loggerhead turtles in the Caro-
linas.That prompted attempts to destroy ghost crabs burrowing near turtle nests, but federal wildlife officials think the threat crabs pose to turtles is insignificant.The night protects ghost crabs from becoming easy meals for gulls. Only the occasional raccoon or other nocturnal predator needs to be escaped.They do face a new threat in our modern world, however: beach replenishment. Sand-pumping projects bury them and their food sources.Cunningham said finding, chasing and catching ghost crabs to examine them has proved very amusing to adults as well as children."About half of our families are from Philly, and people have been coming back for years for ghost crabs," she said.Night beach walks to see ghost crabs begin at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays; $10 adults, $7 ages 3 to 12; preregister by calling the Nature Center of Cape May at 609-898-8848.
E-mail Kevin Post:KPost@pressofac.com