Photo 1: Purple Shore Crab
Purple Shore Crab: Hemigrapsus nudus
This, along with the Green Shore Crab, is one of the most likely crabs that you will see if you flip over a rock on a rocky beach on Vancouver Island. They live in the high tide zone and scuttle away quicklywhen the rock they are under is overturned. They are similar to Green Shore Crabs but the carapace is more rounded and the pincers generally have large red or purple spots. These crabs can grow quite large for shore crabs with the larger specimens being found in the low-tide zones.