Crabs may not be pretty and colorful. Crabs may not seem like cute and cuddly creatures but they play a good role in the intertidal. Crabs are like the layers in the tree. Their claws are like knives in a blade, their carapace like a soldier protecting its queen. Crabs have a symbiotic relationship with anemones; this symbiotic relationship is called commensalisms – the anemones help protect and camouflage the crab and in return the anemones get to ride around on the crab's back. Crabs play an important role in the intertidal food chain. They provide food for other intertidal creatures. If we took all of the crabs away in the food chain there would be no intertidal food chain to begin with.

-Kapua Parker

Like a turquoise ring glistening in a display case of a jewelry store, this sandy-colored Thalamita crab has a ring of turquoise tracing its body. No other crab that we have identified has this unique coloring.

-Kami Seminara

The crab hunts for prey from the orange sunrise to the purple moonfall. It depends on its hunting skills to survive in the intertidal zone. It conserves movements around its body like the cloth used to wrap the decaying body of a 6,000-year-old mummy.

-Kelly Noecker

Like a massive motor biker dancing graceful ballet, the pincers of the red-eyed Xanthid crab sway along to the dance of the rough ocean waves. The mud-colored pincers of this muscular structured crab are the most distinct qualities of the crab family Xanthidae. Don’t think that their “buff and brutal” look gives you the right to stress these creatures out. These creatures are a food source for eels, urchins, other crabs, and many other creatures of the intertidal. This bullyish crab is always ready to strike at its intruders, so don’t mess with this fragile creature.

-Krystal Ulep