Very cool tailless whip-scorpion! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblypygi

I came here just to find the first Father Ted reference. You win!

Cool. (If anything from Sulawesi washes up here, you'll here about it.)

Thanks! Sometimes I'm surprised by what they let me say. And other times I'm surprised by what they won't let me say. E.g., I can chop a person in half with a sword, but I can't swat a dog with a rolled-up newspaper. Apparently censorship is based on how many angry letters they would expect.

Prudes and children are not the target audience. This column appears in a journal for adults, and my target audience is people who don't normally read natural history writing. This one was pretty tame.

Heh heh... Yeah, this one screamed TAKE A PICTURE!

It's best after a dry period and during calm seas. But it's pretty well protected from moderate surf when the tide is low enough. Need the dry period to firm up the mud at the base of the trail. I bet it's super sloppy right now. Too bad since there are some decent afternoon low tides this week.

Would be a good one.

The best tide pools IMO are at Palmer's Point in Sue-meg SP, but the trail down is pretty steep and gets sketchy at the bottom - but should be fine for an 11 year old. The pools at the north end of Trinidad State Beach have better access, but not a good choice if the surf is elevated.

Good question. At the time - 10 years ago - I was certain it was alive. I believe I saw it moving. But my memory isn't totally clear, so I can't be 100% sure now. My assumption was that the gungy coating on the crab disguised it as not being anemone food, and maybe that would be a safe place to be.

I don't know.

Yes - crabs will grow new parts when they molt.

Heh heh... Coulda put that in the alt text!