So the whole crabs-on-the-beach thing is starting to feel a bit biblical, no?

Consider: A couple of days ago, scores of tiny tuna crabs turned up on a few Orange County beaches, piling up in some spots and creating smallish messes in others.

By Tuesday the tuna crab trickle had turned into a tuna crab torrent, with millions of bright red crustaceans forming thick blankets of crabbiness on sands from San Clemente to Seal Beach.

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As new and strange critters make appearances, are ocean oddities becoming ocean regulars?

Not everything has changed: They’re still dead, they’re still red, they’re still smelly. But the new numbers of tiny tuna crabs raise some new questions:

What should we do? Do tuna crabs (even tiny ones) pinch? And, critically, can we eat these things? (No, but more on that in a bit.)

With all that in mind, here’s what you need to know about the Tuna Crab Infestation of 2015:

Should they be cleaned up, or should nature take its course?

People in beach cities who care about tourism are wondering about that. Summer starts Sunday and, as of this moment, the beaches aren’t exactly inviting.

Well, some beaches aren’t inviting.

Beaches in Huntington Beach and Dana Point, hit hard with crabs Sunday and Monday, were clearing Tuesday, lifeguards reported. The tide was taking some crabs; birds were taking others. In general, the sand wasn’t as red as it had been.

But other beaches, such as China Cove and Balboa Island in Newport, were blanketed in a new batch of bright red, mostly dead crabs.

And surfers said plenty of live crabs are lingering just offshore, hinting the episode isn’t over.

“I’m really hoping they come and rake them up,” said Balboa Island resident Mary Olsen, noting that in some areas the crabs were 2 inches thick.

“Once they die, they just really smell.”

Is anybody raking them up?

Yes. In Newport Beach, workers spent Tuesday raking and shoveling the crab-infested sand, scooping the piles into a front loader and then dumping the creatures into a truck for disposal.

Clean-up crews had not yet reached Balboa Island when Einstein Brown, walking the boardwalk as part of a day trip from Los Angeles, marveled at all the crab removal action. He said he’d seen a similar crab infestation in Costa Rica a few years back, and he predicted the worst is yet to come.

“Within the next two or three days, there’s going to be a stench.” Brown said.

“All these beautiful homes? I don’t know what they are going to do.”

Will that work?

It’s complicated. This is the season when grunion spend some nights flopping onto the sand and leaving their eggs. There was a grunion run Tuesday night that will last through Friday.

And grunion reproduction trumps tuna crab cleanup.

Brent Jacobsen, Marine Safety battalion chief in Newport Beach, said the city workers won’t use heavy beach-cleaning equipment below the high-tide line because they don’t want to disturb grunion eggs.

But, he pointed out, the machines might not be necessary. Birds, which like tuna crabs, are feasting.

“Mother Nature seems to be taking care of it,” Jacobsen said.

Huntington Beach has no plans to clean up the remaining crabs because they are a naturally occurring organism, said Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis.

The city also has restrictions against using big trucks to clean the beaches during grunion season.

“For now, we will have to let nature take control of the situation – the birds on the beach are having a big feast,” Panis said.

San Clemente also plans to let the crabs go away naturally.

What are these things, and why are they here?

The Pleuroncodes planipes, also known as pelagic red crabs or tuna crabs, are about 1 to 3 inches long, and typically live in Baja California. It’s not unprecedented for them to come up here, but other than a smaller number earlier this year on Balboa Island, it’s been decades since their last visit.

It’s too early to say what is causing this, but many other unusual creatures have turned up in Southern California over the past year, and climate scientists have pointed to warm water as a reason.

The unseasonable warm patch of ocean – extending from the Bering Sea to the waters off Southern California and showing up as a red splotch on temperature-indicating water maps – even has been given a nickname by the scientists: “The Blob.”

Can we eat them?

Not unless by “we” you’re including birds, sharks, yellowtail, tuna and blue whales. All those creatures love tuna crabs.

But they’re not great for human meals. They don’t have much meat in their shells.

Do they pinch?

The dead ones on the beach don’t, but that’s not true of tuna crabs in the water.

Ethan Mudge, a San Clemente middle school student who won a longboard surf contest over the weekend in Salt Creek, said on Sunday that the live crabs did, indeed, pinch a bit.

“They were hard to paddle through.“

Are they dangerous?

Anthony Martinez, program manager for the county’s Environmental Health Department, said there are no human health concerns believed to be associated with the handling of dead tuna crabs.

Are they cute?

Well, they look like tiny lobsters or crayfish, so if you think those creatures are cute, then sure.

Colette Fried, on vacation from Las Vegas, inspected a crab on the sand near Newport Pier, and gave them the thumbs-up.

“They are so cute. I made my husband take a picture.”

Fried is a science teacher and said she is unbothered by the sight.

“I love the life in the ocean.”

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com