Margate is famous for its sands and skies, but many of us have only a surface knowledge of the wildlife that calls this coast its home.
But if you’re curious about the crustaceans in our midst, there is a new attraction opening just for you in the shape of Europe’s first Crab Museum. CommunityAd caught up with Ned Suesat-Williams, crab enthusiast and one of the museum’s directors, to find out more.
You probably get this question a lot, but why crabs?
Crabs are an amazing and underrepresented group of animals. They play just as integral a role in ecosystems as all other animals and by focusing on crabs, we’ve been able to explore some of the complexities and connections of life on Earth. Environmental awareness is about more than pandas, but we admit they’re pretty cool too.
What sparked your interest in crabs in the first place, and what prompted you to do something with this interest?
We are living through a planetary climate emergency, and the natural world is changing around us much faster than it can adapt. We’re opening Crab Museum not just because crabs are cool in their own right, but to explore the tangled relationships between the natural world and what us shaved apes think of as “human stuff”.
Do you have a background in crabs?
Our team are (mostly) Thanet locals, and are made up of marine biologists, historians, artists and children’s writers.
Why start a museum rather than, say, write a book?
We’re big fans of books! But we wanted to combine the written word with an experience you can touch, hear, smell, and talk about with your family for years to come. Our museum is an environment that encourages learning and critical thinking in a fun and playful way, and also a place that takes humour very seriously as a tool to help us think about the world.
Do you have a favourite kind of crab or a favourite crab fact?
Crabs come in such a wild variety of shapes and sizes it’s difficult to pick just one – but we’re especially fond of the Coconut Crab, although we wouldn’t go near one in real life as they’re super scary.