‘We want to talk about ideas’: how Margate’s Crab Museum is trying to get people to think differently

Eccentric attraction on Kent Thames estuary highlights intelligence of decapods while depicting crabs as 1920s fascists and trade unionists

The Hawaiian pom pom crab is a small creature – just a few centimetres in width – with a remarkable skill. Its name is derived from its habit of carrying around two tiny stinging anemones in its pincers, which it waggles like a cheerleader to fend off predators.

“That is effectively tool use, something that we have only really associated with more ‘intelligent animals’,” says Bertie Suesat-Williams, a director of the Crab Museum in Margate in Kent, which calls itself “Europe’s first and only museum dedicated to the decapod” – but has ambitions far beyond that.