Badass Census Bureau

It's not my usual maritima fare, but in the spirit of the holidays, a little something to make you smile on another topic of interest - the U.S. Census Bureau and its fearless employees, who will risk it all just to count you and your housemates.

Eaten to death: salt marshes in Cape Cod

Eric Van Arsdale, a senior at Brown University working with my graduate advisor Mark Bertness, published an excellent op-ed in the Cape Cod times about salt marsh die-off, which is caused by runaway consumption of marsh grass by the nocturnal squareback marsh crab, Sesarma reticulatum. In his article, Eric mentioned a cool You-Tube video of the crab's nighttime activities that I'm re-posting here.