A crab stole my wrench during a hull clean in Baltimore last month

We were doing a standard hull clean on a big container ship in the harbor, water was murky as usual. I had just set my 10mm wrench down on a flat spot to adjust my rig when this huge blue crab, I swear it was the size of a dinner plate, scuttled right over. It grabbed the wrench in one claw and started backing away with it. My buddy on comms just heard me yelling 'Hey! No!' into my helmet. I had to chase the thing for a good ten feet, trying to gently nudge it with my glove without getting pinched, while my dive partner was laughing so hard I could hear the bubbles through his regulator. I finally got the wrench back, but the crab put up a real fight. Has anyone else had local wildlife try to steal their tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

joseph5292d ago

A slow, steady push with my boot worked on a curious octopus in San Diego.

the_lucas2d ago

That sounds like a gentle way to handle it. Sometimes you just need to give them a little nudge back to deeper water. Glad it worked out for both of you.