This month we have scientist Elodie Camprasse talking about her project monitoring the spider crabs in Port Philip Bay. Elodie and her team have done an incredible job with this work that has attracted considerable attention around the world with over 100,000 views on social media.

An army of claw-some friends
Every winter, in the heart of Port Phillip Bay, a truly amazing natural phenomenon unravels: the gathering of thousands and thousands of great spider crabs. Those crabs come to the shallows together to seek safety in numbers and they are on a mission. In order to grow, they need to shed their hard shells and expand their soft flesh before hardening a new, bigger and shinier shell. Dodging hungry predators on the hunt for a soft crab at that time of year is tricky business – the best place to be is in the middle of a pile, protected by other crabs!

The spider crabs and their aggregations are world famous – Sir David Attenborough himself featured this extraordinary event in BBC Blue Planet II. What a delight for locals and tourists travelling from far and wide to witness this natural wonder, which happens nowhere else in the world!

Would you believe that despite all this attention, we know very little about spider crab biology and ecology? Dr Elodie Camprasse and her team at Deakin University are here to change that and they need your help! Elodie will tell you all about spider crab mysteries and how you can join scientists to solve them!
 

Registration and Access

If you are planning to attend in person, you must register on RS. 

If you are planning to attend using zoom, please use the following link to login prior to the start of the meeting at 8pm

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85880558681?pwd=WFpqZ2pCTmpNNS9NZ3NDWGoyTHBHdz09