While the students deserted us on 24 May, the Pearson College dock has thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands?) of visitors right now. The final larval stage of the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) is called a megalopa and there a many, many megalopae swarming around the dock.
On the dock, there are also thousands of juvenile crabs scrambling around. The megalopae molt and metamorphose into the benthic juvenile stage seen below.
There are also many megalopae and juveniles on the succession substrates that students put in the water in September 2012.
And Ivan thought nothing was using his wire!
Pearson College Marine Science 