Spider Crabs
Army of the Bay
ABOUT.
Every year, an army of spider crabs gathers in Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay ahead of the annual winter moult. It’s an army like no other and they march not in unison, but in an organised chaos on eight long legs. What might sound like the beginning of a sci-fi alien war is, in reality, something much more spectacular: the march of giant spider crabs, one of the world’s greatest marine migrations. And it happens in the waters of Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay.
THE STORY
I first witnessed this phenomenon in 2012 after seeing BBC’s Blue Planet, at the time very few Melbourne residents let alone local divers were aware that this annual occurrence was happening in our bay. Since then I have returned each year to brave the chilly waters and immerse myself and camera amongst the carnage and unique spectacle of one of the world’s great migrations. Unfortunately as it’s become more popular with both local and international divers it has also become a target of opportunistic and greedy fishermen using destructive methods to not only catch these creatures but also upset the ecosystem and environment in the process.
