As the days gradually get warmer, increasing numbers are heading down to their local beaches and spotting all kinds of wildlife.
And recently, people in Pembrokeshire have been seeing strange spikes along their coastline. Resident Lee Murray spotted the spikes whilst walking between Wiseman's Bridge and Saundersfoot. Lee and other beach goers have taken to social media to ask about the spikes, which they presumed to belong to some kind of crustacean.
The spikes actually belong to the masked crab. The name 'masked crab' comes from the patterns on the outer shell which sometimes look like a human face. This crab is mostly found around the south and west of the British Isles, but there are smaller isolated populations across the country and throughout European waters. You can get more environment news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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It is a small species of crab that measures just a few centimetres wide. The crab lives on muddy and sandy sea beds and buries down into the sediment often with only its long antenna poking out. It feeds on marine worms and any other small creatures which are found in the sand and sediment where this crab is present.
Victoria Riglen, from the Marine Conservation Society, said: "The long 'antennae' are used as a snorkel so they can breathe when they bury themselves in the sand. We aren’t sure as to why they’d be appearing now more so than any other time of year, but it could be because of the very low tides."
This isn't the first batch of sea creatures to be found on the Pembrokeshire beach this year. Thousands of starfish were spotted washed up on a beach in Pembrokeshire in the aftermath of Storm Eunice. Piles of the stricken sea creatures were discovered by locals walking their dog along Wisemans Bridge, a rocky stretch of coastline near Tenby on Saturday, February 19. You can read more about that here.
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