Hermit Crabs as Emergent Icons of Global Waste Epidemic and Their Unreal Estate Housing Struggles

Abstract

A hermit crab housed in a broken glass bottle or inside a plastic cap is becoming like a polar bear stranded on a tiny, melting iceberg: those pictures are emergent icons of the plight faced by oceans and creatures, caused by human waste excesses and wrongdoings. These inventive crustaceans fulfill a warning role akin to charismatic megafauna, and induce empathy with varied sources, dominated by human projections like the housing crisis metaphor. Crabs emerge like a cluster where many opposed notions collapse, while they stage the frictions of a complex, fractured balance. They are wild animals, and controversial companion animals, and when they live inside human trash, they show resilience that questions the natural-artificial divide. Simultaneously, they remind humans of strains imposed upon them, the oceans, and the planet, becoming tokens of the unbalances with which humans have to deal in their often-misguided attempts to fix the things they are rupturing.

Ficha de Paroctopus cthulu

“…As conchas utilizadas pela espécie como tocas estão cada vez mais escassas devido seu uso para artesanatos (Zulueta, 2019) e além disso, elas podem estar em um processo de má formação causada pela acidificação dos oceanos (Fitzer et al, 2014;2016). A espécie foi encontrada usando lixo marinho como toca, que também estão sendo recolhidos nas limpezas de praias, e consequentemente retirando também esses animais (Freitas et al, 2022).…”