When wildlife photographer Shawn Miller discovered Okinawa's hermit crabs living in plastic bottle caps instead of shells, he transformed from observer to conservationist by launching the "Make the Switch 4 Nature" project.

Photographer Saves Hermit Crabs From Trash Homes

When Shawn Miller’s camera captured a crisis on the shores of Okinawa, Japan, his heart found a mission.

It was 2010 when he first witnessed the ingenious yet alarming way the island’s tiny hermit crabs were adapting to beach pollution and a scarcity of seashells – they were making homes out of discarded bottle caps and other plastic waste.

"When I first found it, I was absolutely impressed—or more amazed," Miller recalls, "I started finding them adapting with different types of caps from beauty supplies, household items, you name it."

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A hermit crab on the shores of Okinawa, Japan, has made a hope of yellow plastic cap instead of a shell.
(Shawn Miller)

WIldlife photographer Shawn Miller keeps a collection of the plastic waste that hermit crabs once used as their homes, but have since swapped them out for shells provided through his conservation project, "Make a Switch 4 Nature."
(Shawn Miller)

The wildlife photographer has lived in Japan for more than 25 years, it’s where he became fascinated with all the different animals and species there and he began documenting them.

With the hermit crabs, what began as a striking photographic subject quickly transformed into something more profound.

No longer content to document environmental degradation from behind a camera lens, he took action, transforming into a passionate conservationist.

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In 2020 he launched the “Make the Switch 4 Nature” crab conservation project. The initiative helps hermit crabs find natural shells they can swap out their plastic homes for.

Miller receives donations of shells from around the world, “These could be donations from people that used to live here in Okinawa and they collected a bunch of shells and then they fell guilty, so they send it back.”

Wildlife photographer and conservationisht Shawn Miller shows off a donated shell inscribed with a tracking number.
(Shawn Miller)

Conservationist Shawn Miller leads groups of volunteers and youth groups in beach cleanup days to help eliminate some of the plastic waste that hermit crabs end up using for their homes.
(Shawn Miller)

He also collects shells from seafood restaurants and hermit crab owners saying, “It's more of a recycling process. We don't encourage people to buy shells. We want to reuse and recycle shells that are available and then we make sure they're clean and then we give them back to nature.”

The initiative has placed more than 10,000 donated shells into hermit crab habitats, “We'll place them in the coastal forest where other humans can't see them,” Miller explains, “Then hermit crabs can actually smell the shells and then that night or the following nights they will actually go into them.”

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Some of those shells are inscribed with messages and numbers that not only help Miller track his project’s success, but he hopes seeing the inscriptions will make people curious and discourage them from taking shells from the shores.

One of the messages inscribed on a shell that will eventually become a new home for a hermit crab along the shores of Okinawa, Japan.
(Shawn Miller)

A hermit crab makes a new home in one of the shells donated to the "Make a Switch for Nature" conservation project.
(Shawn Miller)

While scientists are just beginning to study how the plastic housing could harm hermit crabs Miller says, “It's definitely not good for their body, it does change their behavior … some of the plastic does leech certain types of chemicals into the sensitive abdomen of the body.”

While small in size, these crustaceans play an outsized role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems. “So anything that washes up dead from the ocean, they feed on that stuff, they clean it. Another thing they do is they help out with aerating the soil,” Miller explains.

He adds, “Another thing they do that's important is they build the beautiful coastal forest that we see next to the ocean because they help out with seed dispersal. Think of them as like the caretakers of the ocean, of the coastline.”

We can become their caretakers by taking part in beach cleanups, reducing our plastic waste and leaving shells where they belong, on the shore.

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