Back in April, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife began receiving numerous phone calls and emails from concerned residents. Many had spotted an alarming sight along Cherry Point beach a few miles south of the Canadian border: thousands of crabs washed up on the sand. The department sent officials out to investigate. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that what covered the beach wasn’t dead crabs, but their empty shells—the result of a natural process called molting.
Many animals undergo molting as a means of shedding their outer layer—feathers, hair, skin, or exoskeleton—so they can grow bigger or prepare for their next life stage. “It’s a critical event in the life cycle of an organism,” says Donald Mykles, a biologist at Colorado State University.
Back in April, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife received a lot of phone calls and emails from worried people. They had spotted an alarming sight on a beach a few miles south of the Canadian border. It looked like thousands of crabs had washed up on the sand. The department sent officials out to investigate. After getting a closer look, they discovered that dead crabs weren't covering the beach. It was just their empty shells. This was the result of a natural process called molting.
Many animals undergo molting in order to shed their outer layer. This lets them grow bigger or prepare for their next life stage. Animals might shed feathers, hair, skin, or an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton is a hard outer skeleton that protects an animal's body. “It’s a critical event in the life cycle of an organism,” says Donald Mykles, a biologist at Colorado State University.