Today, taking a break from my online graduate classes, I took our dog for a long walk in a county park by the Raritan River. On my hike back, I encountered three brothers with their mom, leaning over something by a stream in the park. Upon closer inspection, I saw they had captured some sort of crustacean and had put it in a plastic bag with water. They told me it was a lobster; at first I thought it was a crab, but later I realized it looks nothing like a crab.
So...to all my nature loving friends: what kind of critter is this? I wish the family had let it back into the stream, but, as one of the boys told me: "We don't have a pet at home, and now we do." I sure hope it survives out of its element.
The good news is that efforts to abate water pollution in this area seem to be working. I joked later with my husband that at least these boys didn't pull a two-headed fish out of the river!
So...to all my nature loving friends: what kind of critter is this? I wish the family had let it back into the stream, but, as one of the boys told me: "We don't have a pet at home, and now we do." I sure hope it survives out of its element.
The good news is that efforts to abate water pollution in this area seem to be working. I joked later with my husband that at least these boys didn't pull a two-headed fish out of the river!
cicadas and roly polys are crustaceans too!
ReplyDeleteDid not know that.
DeleteThat is a crawdad.
ReplyDeletePaula: Do you have crawdads in Alaska?
DeleteNo - but we had them in Oregon when I was growing up. There is a famous restaurant in Portland called "Jake's Crawfish"
Deletecrayfish or crawdad as the locals like to call them.
ReplyDeleteYou've never heard of these? They are yummy! Southern food.
Thanks friends! I sure hope the boys don't eat their "pet." Yes, my friend Connie, who is from Baton Rouge, made us a crawfish meal when she visited us....
ReplyDelete