The beaches of San Diego have been painted red in the past couple of weeks by swarms of bright red tuna crabs washing ashore.
A similar crab invasion occurred along San Diego’s beaches in 2002 as a result of El Niño. Though Kim Kardashian made a trip to San Diego recently, she is not believed to be the source of the crab outbreak. The thousands of crabs making their way to the beach is believed to be the result of warmer than usual waters off the West Coast and Mexico. The recent occurrence had been occurring along other California coasts since earlier this year, but only recently did the beach-bound crabs make their way to San Diego’s beaches.
Sadly, the crabs’ beach foray brought almost certain death for them, except for a few lucky enough to be washed back out to sea.
People should avoid eating the beached tuna crabs as they tend to feed on phytoplankton, which sometimes contain toxins. Gorging seagulls, however, were thrilled at the opportunity to engage in an all-out smorgasbord of the red tuna crabs.
