Christmas Island crab migration

The story behind the red crab migration on Christmas Island

It's red crab migration season on Christmas Island, and it's spectacular!

Have you ever seen the Christmas Island’s red crab migration? It is one of the most incredible natural processes on Earth! Every year, millions of these large crabs emerge from the forest and make their way to the ocean to breed, swarming across roads, streams, rocks and beaches. It’s a truly magical sight 🦀🦀🦀 Credit: Christmas Island Tourism @christmasisland IG #redcrabmigration #christmasisland #ausgeo | Australian Geographic

Millions of Red Crabs Making Their Annual Christmas Island Migration to the Sea

In early 2019 we started to notice a strange crab species washing along our shore. We didn’t recognise these bright red swimming crabs, but we started to see more and more of them, often while diving in the kelp forests. After a bit of research we realised that we were swimming amongst a swarm of Smiths swimming crabs. These visitors are very rare to our coast, yet there have been reports of swarms of them washing up on our coast every ten years or so. Video - Pippa Ehrlich #OceanConservation #P