They were typical sun worshippers looking for a suite near the beach, with good fishing and plenty of space to wiggle. The Fairmont Hamilton was happy to provide accommodation even if its clientele didn’t normally extend to land hermit crabs.The Pembroke hotel is currently awaiting a scientific audit of a land hermit crab project they accidentally became involved in a year ago. Last autumn, the hotel’s Green Team was helping with a Keep Bermuda Beautiful cleanup of Horseshoe Bay Beach when they came across almost 160 West Indian topshells that had been illegally shucked and abandoned.West Indian topshells, a protected species, are white shells with a black stripe that are about as large as a clenched fist. The person who shucked them could have faced a fine of thousands of dollars, had they been caught.“Had it only been five or six shells we probably would not have noticed,” said Fairmont Hamilton manager Allan Trew, who was involved in the cleanup that day. “But the fact that it was so many of them in one area made us notice. There were about 156 shells. They were in one spot. They weren’t anywhere near the water’s edge. It was like someone had collected them.”The Green Team called Government’s conservation department and found they could actually recycle the empty topshells and give them to another protected species — the land hermit crab. The land hermit crab does not create its own shell, but relies on the discarded shells of other species to protect their soft rear half.Historically land hermit crabs in Bermuda preferred ‘wearing’ West Indian topshells, but these were wiped out by the early settlers who ate them. The crabs then had to rely on fossil topshells, and their population became quite low. Topshells were reintroduced to Bermuda in 1982 and today are much more common.It is hoped that the land hermit crab population will also increase.After the beach cleanup, the discovered shells were placed in nature reserves where hermit crabs might access them. The letter F, for Fairmont, was painted on their shells so researchers could monitor whether they were being used. They were placed open end up so they would fill with rain water as land hermit crabs need fresh water to keep their gills wet when on land.“It is the intent of our Green Team to go and visit these spots, eventually,” said Mr Trew. “They haven’t found a crab yet wearing one of our shells, but they will be doing an audit of the areas where they are next month. Sometimes it takes crabs a while to put on a new shell.”Mr Trew said finding the shells and handing them over, felt like “hitting gold”.“It felt good because it was just a learning experience for all the members of our team,” he said. “Now we want to see what happens going forward.”The Fairmont team is also involved in other environmental work and regularly conducts trash audits at the hotel.“Once a month, we will bring down 30 or 40 bags of garbage off the guest floors and literally sift through to see what is being thrown out,” he said. “There are some things that shouldn’t be going into the garbage such as our own [television remotes for example]. They do have recycle bins on every floor. It is more of a learning experience for our local staff than anything else. We might learn, for example, that there needs to be more communication between staff and guests as to where they can put their items for recycling in the hotel.“Another one of the initiatives that our Green Team has been involved in is recycling our printer cartridges. Every month or so our old printer cartridges are collected and taken away for recycling. We donate them to a company here that shifts them overseas for them to be reused.”The self-described nature lover said he enjoyed being personally involved in Green Team initiatives at the hotel and was looking forward to the next one.“We hope to inspire others to learn more about the natural wonders of the Island and to take part in conservation initiatives,” he said.