Saturday, October 10, 2009
"The Tool" vs. the Red Snapping Shrimp
One night, as we ate turkey and shrimp kebobs at the Sonora Grill, Greg had a fabulous idea! He had been wanting to find/create/fashion some sort of "tool" to persuade any Red Snapping Shrimp out from behind the corkscrew anemone where the Shrimp lived. He decided the wooden skewer would work perfectly! The only other thing he needed to make the skewer work, was to protect the pointy end from stabbing him. He placed an empty eye drop vial on the pointy end. Now, it's officially called "The Tool."
Red Snapping Shrimp hide in the corkscrew anemone. If you're lucky, you may see just their first legs, which each bear a claw. While both are snapping claws, one claw is greatly enlarged. The shrimp use their snapping claws to produce loud popping sounds, which you can really hear underwater!
Greg's plan is to use "The Tool" to draw out the Red Snapping Shrimp. Putting the tool within reaching distance of the shrimp, would/should make the shrimp grab hold of it using the claw.
So, Greg took "The Tool" on our dives the next day. And, surprisingly, it worked well! It didn't really lure the Red Snapping Shrimp totally out of his hiding place but we were able to see his claws and hear the snap, snap, snap as he tried to grab "The Tool."
// posted by Leenie @ 9:30 PM 
