Jan 19, 2010: This story does not end well.

Tideflat Critters

Yesterday while filming the shuckers we discovered a gunnel hiding in the oyster pile. The little fish was making the most of his situation, and had his mouth stuffed with oyster meat: gunnel

We decided to put the plucky gunnel into the aquarium. The aquarium is quite a bit warmer than the canal this time of year, so it takes a while for the creatures to acclimate. Unfortunately, this gunnel never got the chance. One of the bigger spider crabs sensed his disorientation and snatched him away and up into the spider crab liar, aka the top of the pump mechanism, where he was promptly disembowelled. It's hard to watch (especially because of all the terrible reflections), but by the time we noticed what was happening the spider crab already had a hole in the gunnel's abdomen and it was too late to save the poor little fish. We finished the video by filming a live, frisky gunnel swimming around.

Something funny does happen at the very end of the video... if you look closely  you'll notice the reflection of a pink-shirted, multi-tasking Helena scampering into the kitchen after an overboiling crab pot. This morning the two spider crab were playing tug of war with the gunnel's head... but we didn't take a photo.



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