Tiny shrimp-like creatures are moving 110 pounds of sand per meter of California beach every day, scientists say they may be reshaping the coast

488 points by ConsciousRealism42 6 hours ago on reddit | 28 comments

jawshLA | 6 hours ago

TIL: The things we called sand crabs all my life are actually called Sand Hoppers.

Fun-War6684 | 5 hours ago

We called em sand beetles

gartlandish | 4 hours ago

We call them Sand fleas in rhode island

Fun-War6684 | 4 hours ago

Interesting but I thought those were different animals? Cuz I’ve seen the flea ones that hop around and burrow but the ones we called beetles would only burrow

gartlandish | 4 hours ago

Ya I know what you’re talking about and they are called sand fleas. but we call these sand fleas too for some reason. At least my grandpa did

Fun-War6684 | 4 hours ago

Ohh gotcha. Now that I think about it we’d call the beetles fleas too and would annoy the hell outta my dad

Wayelder | 3 hours ago

I called them...'bait'.

If we're talking the clawless little crabby things that dig into the beach at the drop off. You can release them and they scuttle their way back into the sand almost instantly.

gartlandish | 2 hours ago

Ya definitely great bait

Electronic-Lie-4547 | an hour ago

And Florida - east coast terminology

chiefkeefinwalmart | 2 hours ago

There is no ‘actually called’ when it comes to common names. Call em whatever works for you

NefariousnessNo484 | 2 hours ago

They're sand crabs in socal.

WTFHELP | 4 hours ago

Can we eat them?

Perfect-Squash3773 | 3 hours ago

some people do.

WTFHELP | 2 hours ago

Sand hoppers and grits is on the menu.

NefariousnessNo484 | 2 hours ago

Leave them alone

Loose_Jackfruit_3104 | 2 hours ago

I for one am okay with the shrimp-like creatures moving the sand

Morbidly-Obese-Emu | 5 hours ago

I feel like 110 pounds in the context of the entire California coast is not that much.

RedditorSinceTomorro | 5 hours ago

Per meter

Bearded_Toast | 2 hours ago

Every day

SpoonwoodTangle | 5 hours ago

Well keep in mind that there might be a huge number of these critters. If each of them are doing this every week, it starts to add up.

Bearded_Toast | 2 hours ago

It’s per day

SpoonwoodTangle | an hour ago

It reminds me of how all the tiny, microscopic creatures in the ocean migrate up and down the water column each day, and how their tiny flaggellae somehow stir and refresh the waters of the ocean to a surprising depth

Zenfrogg62 | 44 minutes ago

Is it each of them though? The article wasn’t clear as to whether it was each creature or the total creatures in the patch of beach that was studied.

Evil-Dalek | 9 minutes ago

Each 1 meter stretch of coastline is having 110 pounds of sand moved per day by the culmination of all of the crabs.

So a 1km stretch of coastline is having 110,000 pounds of sand moved per day.

onethousandthwish | 3 hours ago

110 pounds PER METER 100 pounds PER METER 110 pounds PER METER

Potatoez | 2 hours ago

PER METER aka 3 cubic feet

Edit: 3 FEET! lol

lollygagging_reddit | an hour ago

Check again lol, you just converted a distance into a volume!

Silly you. But I got what you were getting at

renijreddit | 3 hours ago

🎶 just what makes that little ol” crab…