Beach pollution is a real problem in Okinawa, Japan, but the blueberry hermit crabs living there are finding ways to thrive amidst — and inside — the trash. In 2010, photographer Shawn Miller ...

Instead, hermit crabs have a hard exoskeleton on the front part of their bodies but a soft tail on the other half, which they protect using the discarded shells of other animals, like whelks.

Hermit crabs are famous for being small critters that, from time to time throughout their lives, abandon one shell carried on their back to pick up a new one. Project HERMITS by [Ken Nakagaki] is ...

Eagle-eyed fans might spot several Easter eggs hidden within the creature’s trash-covered shell. Dubeau reveals ... essentially Latin for “big hermit crab carrying trash,” serving as both ...

a hermit crab resorts to a plastic bottle cap to protect its soft abdomen. Beachgoers collect the shells the crabs normally use, and they leave trash behind. PHOTOGRAPH BY SHAWN MILLER “The ...