Are Seashells Your Souvenirs?

Did you see the program “Kembara Khatulistiwa” at RTM 1 at 6.05pm on 17^th July 2007? Interesting travel program on a home stay at Bagan Datoh, Perak. The program showed about the beach at Sungai Tiang. A vast beach and the many colorful seashells found there. I was shocked to see the hostess collecting them as souvenirs and mentioning it as to encourage viewers to collect them!

If you have been to Koh Adang, (Satun, Thailand) you would have seen a huge colony of happy hermit crabs canvassing on the beach at night. It was an interesting learning experience for some of us to watch the hermit crabs changing shells, from the smaller to a bigger “home”. (I regretted not taking pictures to prove it). That was a sanctuary for hermit crabs. They were so advance in conservation and at least 10 years ahead as compared with our Bolehland. We are only good for showing off to the world for sending people to space, climbing Everest and conquering the poles!

The shells of hermit crabs are actually temporary homes. Each hermit crab shifted when it gets bigger as its “home” could not accommodate its size anymore. It just find another new shell and shifted to a bigger one.

What happen when there is no shell to shift?

The pictures below showed the consequences when human started to collect seashells as souvenirs.

Conclusion:

Would you want your house to be collected by some giants as souvenir? Perhaps you have to shift to a big drum or even the rubbish dump as a new home! Would you?

Pictures sourced from:

http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/images/hermitcrab2.jpg
http://www.caymanwildlife.org/images/pressimages/w-HermitCrabinPVC.jpg