These red crabs swarm on the shore when there is a red tide which is an algal bloom so numerous that they color the water red. These Pleuroncodes planipes, also known as tuna crabs look like baby lobsters or crawfish but are no longer than 3 inches long. The crabs were first washing ashore in Long Beach and in the Huntington Beach area before the tide washed them south to Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Dana Point.
Factors that are especially favorable for red tide include warm surface temperatures, high nutrient content, low salinity, and calm seas. Many have taken to Twitter to show others what they found at their trip to the beach.
Dead and dying #redcrabs at #piratescove in #coronadelmar by... pic.twitter.com/p8mtWbVYeK— CoronaDelMarNews (@_CoronaDelMar) May 13, 2016
"Just like last year, in June we had a washing of tuna crabs and they think its correlated with El Niño," Imperial Beach Lifeguard Captain Robert Stabenow told San Diego's CBS affiliate. "The warmer waters are pushing them up and when they hit the cold waters of San Diego, they die off."
Although it is a sight to see, scientists call the red tide 'harmful algal bloom' that can potentially harm species of fish and can even cause illness in humans.
Warmer water from El Nino causes the crabs to migrate from Mexico to further north but they eventually die from the change in conditions, and most of the thousands of crabs that were washed ashore in Laguna Beach and Dana Point today are dead.
Last June, nearly hundreds of thousands of red crabs washed up on shore from Newport Beach to San Clemente. Balboa Island was hit the hardest with red shores covering the bay. It was the first time that residents of O.C. saw this feature of red tide, and bystanders compared the look of the crabs to a bloody shoreline.
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