Crab Odyssey: Crustacean Wandered the Seas in a Bottle for Months, Scientists Find
Scientists discovered a crab that had spent months at sea stuck in a bottle, subsisting on algae and fish that wandered into its plastic lair. The lonely mariner offers a warning about the impacts of human pollution on wildlife worldwide.
A crab's incredible journey began in 2022, when a female three-spot swimming crab (Portunus sanguinolentus) became trapped inside a plastic bottle containing Shaoxing cooking wine. En route, the crab survived by feasting on juvenile fish within the bottle, consuming a diet of fish remains and green and brown algae. When researchers released the crab, they discovered she had drifted across the ocean's surface for at least two months, her survival echoing the story of Odysseus and his Odyssean trials.
The researchers likened her plight to the tale of a salamander trapped in a burrow and the unexpected survival of anacondas in chicken coops, highlighting the unexpected resilience of wildlife.
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