National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Photo: Crustacean "Swarm" Destroying Small Hiroshima Island


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Workers with the Geological Society of Japan examine the uninhabited island of Hoboro in August 2007 (top). The small island off the coast of Hiroshima Prefecture has gotten visibly smaller since the 1950s (bottom).

A local expert says that the island is disappearing at an unusual rate because warmer waters around the island have allowed small crustaceans called nanatsuba-kotsubumushi to flourish. The tiny creatures (inset) bore into the rock to nest, making it weaker and more susceptible to weathering.

Top photograph by Yuji Okimura, Kenta Tsuchioka, Yuji Funakoshi; bottom photograph and inset courtesy Yuji Okimura