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3D Printers To Save Hermit Crabs

Posted by timothy on from the everyone-has-priorities dept.

Shareable writes "Makerbot just launched Project Shellter, which will leverage the Makerbot community's network of 5,000 3D printers to make shells for hermit crabs — which face a species-threatening, man-made shell shortage (they inhabit abandoned shells)."

25 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. 3D Printing to Save Wall Street by mfh · · Score: 2

    By printing more suckers.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:3D Printing to Save Wall Street by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Forget the Wall Street suckers, how is more plastic junk in the ocean a good thing?

    2. Re:3D Printing to Save Wall Street by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Plastic is an organic compound and will break down a lot faster than the mineral structure of "natural" seashells.
      What we consider to be unpleasant but non-toxic waste does not necessarily have to be bad for the sea-life.
      For example a car-wreck dumped into the ocean can make a great substitute for coral reefs.

    3. Re:3D Printing to Save Wall Street by Tomato42 · · Score: 2

      What AC said is true. One though has to remember to remove oils (including the gearbox, transmission, etc.) and fuel. Rest will work quite well as a reef seed.

  2. New Shells? by Pikoro · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps it could be named "Project bash"?

    --
    "Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
  3. Real problem? by sakdoctor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is there any evidence that this is a real problem, as opposed to an art project, PR stunt, or whatever?

    1. Re:Real problem? by camperdave · · Score: 2

      Indeed! How about focussing on why there is a shortage of natural shells? Is there a gastropod sickness going around? Are the mollusks dying off for some reason?

      Also, shouldn't we be making these pseudo-shells out of glass or ceramic rather than some potentially toxin leaching plastic?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:Real problem? by ChinggisK · · Score: 4, Informative

      Natural shells are in short supply because people pick them up and take them home.

      No source other than my marine biologist wife and years of living near Florida beaches.

    3. Re:Real problem? by steelframe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When my wife and I were in Fiji years ago she would set the nice shells she had collected that day out on the deck to dry out. In the morning the shells was scattered and the best were always gone. It was like a crab used car lot where they drive in with a Pinto and leave with a Porsche. A one stop shop that I'm sure the crabs appreciated.

    4. Re:Real problem? by flyingsquid · · Score: 2, Interesting
      This project is just so completely naive and asinine, it's hard to even know where to start. From their site:

      "With a shell shortage, hermit crabs around the world are being forced to stick their butts into bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they can find. This is not acceptable. As a community, we can reach out to this vulnerable species..."

      First of all, scarcity of a resource- in this case, shelters- is just how things operate in nature. It's not a sign that something is necessarily wrong, because in a healthy ecosystem, there's never enough to go around for everyone. Trees in the rainforest compete with each other for light, jackals on the savannah fight each other for scraps of food, elephant seals fight each other for mates. Using the same logic as these guys, you would conclude that we should put grow-lights in the Amazonian rainforest to help the poor, light-starved seedlings on the forest floor. We should be flying tons of steaks to Africa to feed the jackals so they don't have to fight each other. We should run dating services for the seals.

      Second of all, referring to hermit crabs as "this species" is a clear red flag that these people don't even have the slightest clue about marine biology, or conservation, or science in general. Hermit crabs aren't a species, they're a collection of over a thousand species, ranging from the little things you see in the pet store to giant palm-tree-climbing coconut crabs three feet across. Some of them use shells, some live in sponges instead of shells, some (like coconut crabs) only use a shell for part of their life cycle, and a number (including the giant Alaska King Crab) gave up on the whole snail shell thing millions of years ago. The point is, it might make sense to talk about saving certain species of hermit crab that are threatened, but to say that hermit crabs as a whole need saving just shows an ignorance of the science.

      Finally, I can't actually find any reference to hermit crabs being endangered or listed on the IUCN redlist. It wouldn't surprise me at all if there are endangered species of hermit crabs, but until you've actually taken ten minutes on Google to determine whether there really are endangered species of hermit crab, and whether that actually results from a scarcity of shells, I think you're just wasting everyone's time.

      Listen, if people want to make the world a better place, that's great. That's to be respected, and we need more of it, and we do more people who are concerned about taking responsibility for their communities, their world, and their environment. But good intentions aren't enough to make a difference. This kind of thing is just a waste of time and distracts from the people who are out there every day trying to solve problems that actually need solving. The technology is pretty cool, so there must be some way people could use it that would actually solve a real problem.

  4. From TFA by Dunbal · · Score: 2

    One of the challenges is that no one knows yet if hermit crabs will live in man-made plastic shells.

    But hey so long as we can sell 5000 people more plastic filament replacements who cares, it's for a good cause, right?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:From TFA by TexNex · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hermit crabs will live in anything they can get their ass into and fully hide under. I've seen them "wear" bottle tops and in one case a plastic cup.

    2. Re:From TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is true I had a pet hermit crab when I was younger and we couldn't find a shell big enough for it so I put one of my plastic toys in the cage with it and it took up residence in it the same day. Although, I have to admit that unless these crabs are in the wild it doesn't really matter because hermit crabs do not require a shell to survive it is only used for pretection from preditors. My hermit crab went without a shell for quite a while before I put a toy in the tank with it.

  5. Re:How much $$$ will that cost ? by sed+quid+in+infernos · · Score: 2

    goatse - someone mod this troll down, please.

  6. Plenty of Hermit Crab homes in my front yard . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Funny

    FTFA:

    With a shell shortage, hermit crabs around the world are being forced to stick their butts into bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they can find.

    I keep tellin' them pesky neighborhood ranch association folks that it ain't no trash in my front yard. That there's a Hermit Crab Sanctuary.

    And them crabs keeps their kids off my lawn.

    At least I think there's still a lawn down there below the trash.

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  7. Re:just plastic? by EdZ · · Score: 2

    RepRap, the design the Makerbot was based on, can and has printed with ABS, PLA, Polycarbonate, PET, and Nylon (though vague worries about fumes have meant it's rarely used). As long as you can feed it into the extruder and set the correct temperature, you can print any thermoplastic.

  8. Re:just plastic? by vlm · · Score: 2

    from the article: "But, a thought - how about we stop destroying hermit crab homes in the first place? Isn't putting too much plastic stuff in the ocean part of the problem? "

    Is plastic (ABS) the only thing a Makerbot can work with?

    Any 3-d printer can make a shell, or pretty much anything that fits inside its work envelope. A makerbot is one specific type of 3d printer. I'm very intermittently building my own 3-d printer out of aluminum bar stock, following the most recent reprap design, at which point I'll be able to print stuff such as another, bigger reprap printer...

    plastic (ABS) implies theres only one plastic that being ABS. I see you didn't even look at the makerbot website, since they sell water soluble PVA and sorta biodegradable PLA. PLA would probably be an OK selection. Pretty much any thermoplastic plastic could theoretically be used if you're willing to make your own extruder, I'm thinking of fooling around with styrene and maybe PE. Even a thermoset plastic could probably be used if you're super motivated and/or crazy.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  9. I've seen a lot of dumb things on Slashdot ... by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But this probably takes the cake.

    I have to hope this is just a (lame) attempt at advertising, and not that the dimwits involved in this actually believe that its better for the hermit crabs to ship plastic around the world, manufacture it into the spools the MakerBot uses, then use all that electricity to fabricate a plastic shell, and then tossing *plastic* into the ocean is actually going to help hermit crabs.

    You know, hermit crabs -- an animal of which there are billions in the ocean. (I'm sure a few thousand suckers making these will really help the species!)

    You know, an animal that will live in ANY scavanged hollow-enough item.

    And if said dimwits actually believe they're helping anything, it just goes to show the aversion to reason and science isn't limited to the radical right.

    1. Re:I've seen a lot of dumb things on Slashdot ... by Space+cowboy · · Score: 2

      Not to mention that the ABS plastic used in a maker bot *floats*

      I had already posted a comment on MB's web page last Friday, asking if this was just a publicity stunt, but for some reason it wasn't moderated as approved...

      Simon

      --
      Physicists get Hadrons!
    2. Re:I've seen a lot of dumb things on Slashdot ... by wvmarle · · Score: 2

      Then indeed this must be due to air enclosures: either in the material, or in the final shape of the object you made (small spaces very easily trap air, for example). Most plastics shrink quite a bit when cooling down, and as I understand the makerbot uses molten plastic to make its shapes, and that also can create air bubbles inside the material.

  10. Need a better name for your project? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...Why not Zoidberg?

    (especially since the episode where Zoidberg finds a shell has some of the best quick gags in the series.)

    --
    There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  11. Re:What about the homeless Americans? by CubicleView · · Score: 2

    I'm going to print the worlds smallest violin and play it just for you, troll.

  12. Re:This is stupid by NEDHead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mass production doesn't allow for the creative preferences of the crab population. By establishing a reference model shell standard as a starting point, all manner of customization can then be offered as upgrades - multiple rooms, fancy foyers, etc. Although perhaps not every crab should look for the upscale options, with some clever financing alternatives it should be possible to create an open ended boom in the marketplace and enable crabs of all means to look forward to ever rising valuations.

  13. I love the outrage in their comments! by Quadfreak0 · · Score: 2

    Scroll down past the article, there's more insight in the comments than the actual story. Makes you wonder if anyone really thought about the impact of 5000+ pieces of plastic going into the ocean hoping that these crabs take shelter... I really hope they have some more in depth research other than, "our pet hermit crab loves them!" There must be a reason glass blowers across the US haven't tackled this yet.

  14. 2004 previous attempt by jayrtfm · · Score: 3, Informative

    This was tried in 2004 http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/demaray.php
    TFA goes into detail on the reasons and shows actual experiments with prototypes.