Car Tires Discarded in the Ocean Trap Hermit Crabs Forever

Hermit crabs are the garbage men of the oceans. They clean up what other animals leave behind. But a new study by researchers at Hirosaki University has discovered that the concave interior of discarded vehicle tires lying on the ocean floor can trap the crabs with no escape.

Atsushi Sogabe, first researcher on the study and associate professor at Hirosaki University, initially noticed this during a 2012 survey of Mutsu Bay in Japan. He then followed experiments in both an aquarium and the ocean. Scientists observed nearly 1,300 hermit crabs trapped in tires. None was able to escape without help from the researchers.

Hermit crabs sit near the bottom of the food chain, providing a reliable source of food for fish and seabirds, so to lose a population of hermit crabs has implications for other species too. It gives another perspective on those attempts to build artificial reefs with discarded car tires.