Is that a rock, dappled with pink anemone? No – it’s a Puget Sound king crab, colorfully camouflaged!

North Puget Sound Color is full of the vibrant colors you’d see diving in local waters: bright vermillion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus), black-and-green-speckled rock greenling (Hexagrammos lagocephalus), pink strawberry anemone (Corynactis californica) scattered like tiny flowers over the rocks, paler crimson anemone (Cribrinopsis fernaldi) waving their arms to catch dinner, and brilliant orange sea cucumber (Cucumaria miniata).

Squat down to fish-eye-level and you’ll be instantly shrunk to fish size, as the thick exhibit walls magnify the scene and surround you.

But it’s the king crab (Lopholithodes mandtii) that will really surprise you. When you discover that mottled orange-and-pink rock is actually an enormous crustacean, built like a tank, you realize how perfect its disguise is to ward off predators and capture the barnacles, sea stars and urchins it crushes for dinner.