Volunteer Spotlight: Sandcrab Monitor Francesca Hamilton

How are the CAS interns involved in the FMSA’s monitoring projects?

Umm, so over the past two summers, we been involved in the sand crab project and we go out in the morning and collect sand crabs and record the data. It’s a lot of fun. And its great to be part of a larger project.

Could you tell me what a typical day monitoring the beach is like?

We arrive in the morning. We determine who’s going to wet and who’s going to be dry because when we collect sand crabs sometimes we go out in the water.  I like to stay dry – I’m a little bit of a princess. We have a chicken wire sieve, one with bigger holes and one with smaller holes. The sand we collect goes into the sieves and we wash the sand out and collect the crabs. We count the males and females and see whether the crab is a recruit or not – which is a crab under 12 mm. With the females, we see if they are carrying eggs or not. We then take three of each: three males, three females, and three females with eggs and we take them back to the Academy and look for parasites.

How can you tell the male crabs apart from the females? I think – you lift up their tails, and if they have hair on their telsons it’s a female and if it doesn’t it’s a male.

What happens when it’s cold and foggy or stormy at the beach? Do you still go out and monitor? Yeah, we keep truckin' and still go.

Why do you think it’s important to monitor sand crabs at the beach?

I think that sand crabs are pretty low on the food chain. If you don’t have sand crabs then the birds don’t have anything to eat. They’re kind of indicators of things that may be wrong with the beach or the water - or like global warming.

Do you think that data collected by trained students is reliable, accurate data?

Of course it is. Since we’re students, we ‘re trying hard not to mess up. We don’t always have opportunities to participate in real science projects so we want to make sure things are accurate.

What do you like most about monitoring? I like learning about the sand crabs at ocean beach. When I was younger I used to play with them. It is interesting to see how many there are – it’s amazing sometimes we would catch 100 in one sample.

What was your least favorite part about monitoring?

Sometimes I’d have to get a little wet – but that’s ok for science . I like being out in the field. It’s better to be out in the field and on the beach then in the office on the computer.

Have you learned anything interesting about sand crabs?

I learned that they can get quite big and that was kind of amazing to me.

Has your attitude changed about science - or careers in science - from your participation in the project?

Um, lets see. I learned that science can be a lot of fun instead of just being in books. Instead of being boring, it can be a lot of fun by going in the field and collecting, by doing a research project that doesn’t involve just sitting at the microscope all day.

Do you have a career in mind after college? A dream job?

Um, oh boy, I would like to do something that involves sharing my love of science with others like maybe being a teacher and making science fun for my students. But my mom’s a teacher and I know that they do not a lot of money.