A hermit crab in a bucket, surrounded by plastic trash. A new study shows more than half a million hermit crabs may have died on remote islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans after being trapped in plastic containers and trash.

(University of Tasmania Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies)

At a Glance

Bottles and other debris become deadly traps for hermit crabs.Previous research showed millions of pieces of plastic had washed up on the islands.Researchers say their estimates only show a small part of the overall scale of possible deaths.

More than half a million hermit crabs may be dead on remote islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans, where millions of plastic bottles, containers and other trash have become deadly traps for one of nature's most iconic crustaceans.

A new study released in the Journal of Hazardous Materials estimates that some due to the proliferation of plastic pollution on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory in the Eastern Indian Ocean, and Henderson Island in the South Pacific, considered one of the most remote coral atolls in the world.

"When we were surveying debris on the islands, I was struck by how many open plastic containers contained hermit crabs, ," Jennifer Lavers, a researcher at the University of Tasmania who led the study, said in a statement.

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Lavers has previously published research on the that had washed up on the islands, including an estimated 238 tons on the Cocos alone.

The number of dead hermit crabs estimated by her most recent work could be just a fraction of those worldwide.

"High concentrations of debris are now being encountered on beaches around the world, many of which are also home to hermit crabs that can be expected to interact with plastic pollution in the same way as those we studied," Lavers said.

"Our study is the first to document the mortality of hermit crabs due to beach debris, but the broader global picture remains unknown."

While hermit crabs are well known to beachgoers and are sometimes sold in souvenir shops, Lavers pointed out that they play a crucial role in marine ecosystems.

"Their population degradation is more than just a risk to the natural environment," she said. "They are also an important part of marine ecosystems that humans rely on for fishing, recreation and tourism, so ultimately the impacts may also be economic."

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