Two weeks ago I went to check out the lowest tide of the month. It happened to be at 8:06 am, so I took the morning off to go to the beach!

The low lying rocks were absolutely covered with long ribbons of kelp, which made it kind of treacherous to walk through. It also had a stronger rotting stench than I remember from other beaches. But once I got down there, and starting moving the kelp aside, I found some cool things underneath.

For instance, this pink crab! Pink!

I’ve never seen a crab like this little guy before. He’s well disguised to look like a rock covered with coralline algae, except that rocks don’t move around. He skittered a bit, so I saw him and got him and got a couple pictures before he walked himself off the rock where I set him and into a deep crevice, where I couldn’t even see him.

It’s a little bit blurry, but look at his funny little face! He’s so cute. It’s like if Tove Jansson designed a crab, this is what it would look like. I don’t think you can tell, but he has a little nose like Little My. If you’re not familiar with Little My, she’s the one with her hair in a bun.

I’d never seen a crab like that before, in color or in shape. I asked around and got the email for someone at the Alaska Department of Fish & Game who is into the intertidal critters. I sent him the pictures and he wrote back to say that it is a Cryptolithodes sitchensis, commonly called an umbrella crab. Wikipedia mentions that it is also called a Sitka crab, so how fitting that I should find my first one on a beach in Sitka. Check out the wikipedia page, they come in a wide range of colors. Very cool critters!