Believe it or not, hermit crabs are facing a housing crisis.
Environmental degradation has caused large numbers of the crustaceans to live inside trash like bottle caps, said Japanese biology professor Katsuyuki Hamasaki, who has been monitoring their situation.
Hamasaki told Japanese art and design website Spoon & Tamago the crabs are “professional house hunters” who are constantly outgrowing and replacing their shells. As a result, they are always short on shells.
An unlikely company has joined him to take up the cudgels for the crabs – Suumo, a Japanese real estate listing company.
They have teamed up with group of students from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to produce artificial shells using potato starch, which would not have an adverse impact on the environment or hurt the creatures.
Environmental degradation has led to a shortage of shells, so the hermit crabs have resorted to occupying bottle caps.
Artificial shells are designed with a smooth and comfortable interior so that the crabs could slip into it easily.
The two men have teamed up with group of students from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to produce artificial shells using potato starch, which would not have an adverse impact on the environment or hurt the creatures.
Boldly painted in green, the shells come in different sizes but are light and comfortable for the crustaceans to inhabit, according to the project team. And yes, each shell had the company’s logo on it as well.
Hermit crab get Sumumo homes
The project team went to a beach and planted the shells of different sizes on the sand. Lo and behold, the hermit crabs began moving in.
Spoon & Tamago thought it was a brilliant marketing ploy for Suumo since it served a real environmental purpose.
Next: No sandcastles for hermit crabs: They get crystalline buildings and cities instead
Hermit crabs strut in designer 3-D printed homes
If you bake long enough on a beach and keep still without disturbing the hermit crabs scuttling around you, you may discover that they too queue up to get what they want.
They line up according to their size to exchange and upgrade their shells. They also are known to nudge aside recycled shells, rock and wood chips or even last year’s trash to upgrade themselves to ‘designer’ shelters to call home.
And now humans too are able to play a part in providing them with new fancy homes.
Japanese artist Aki Inomata (above) has been combining cutting-edge 3D printing technology and architecture designs to sculpt non-toxic crystalline shells in the shape of miniature representations of iconic landscape of places around the world.
The artist, who runs a gallery in Tokyo, was inspired to come up with the unique idea after noting the peaceful exchange of ownership of a piece of land where the French embassy sits on in Japan.
The piece of land in Tokyo was given back to Japan to use for the next 50 years, and after which, it would be returned to France under an agreement.
“The same piece of land is peacefully transferred from one country to the other…These kinds of things take place without our being aware of it. These kinds of things take place without our being aware of it,” Inomata wrote.
The artist used detailed scanning to capture the interior of a discarded shell so that the soft-shelled crustaceans could fit into her creations snugly.
Bespoke homes for the crabs
Inomata’s vision might seem surreal but gives hermit crabs the chance to ‘go places’.
So if you’re lazing in the sun in Krabi, you might want to bestow the Grand Palace of Bangkok on your favourite hermit crab. Or how about the City of Manhattan if it prefers the Big Apple?
Better still, drop a clutch of the designer shells and catch the rare house-hunting activity on the sand, followed by the fashion show.
chenj@sph.com.sg
Read also: Sisters’ Island to be the heart of Singapore’s marine conservation
