Bangkok, Thiland, Thai marine scientists on Tuesday said they had failed to discover the cause of death for thousands of red frog crabs over the weekend on Phuket Island, one of Thailand’s most popular beach resorts. Thousands of the small crabs, whose scientific name is Ranina ranina, crawls up on Sai Kaew beach in Phuket, 640 kilometres south of Bangkok, over the weekend and died on the sand. Local villagers gathered the crabs up in baskets and ate them, apparently with no ill-affects. ‘The crabs will normally bury themselves under the sand when they are washed up on the beach, but these crabs were too weak to do so and dried out in the sun,’ said Suphasit Boonpianphol, a researcher at the Phuket Marine Resources Research and Development Institute in Phuket. Initial test of the surrounding water and soil showed no signs of contamination. The institute was doing further tests of the crabs to determine if had been poisoned by fishermen. ‘It’s a worrisome development because this beach is not only an important one for the crabs but is also the only one in Phuket where turtles still come to lay their eggs because there are no resorts there and few people,’ said Suphasit in a telephone interview.