There's shrimp to be had.

It's an amazing world we live in.

You'd never see this little guy with the naked eye. Remember that next time you're at the beach.

That scoop of wet sand that your kid is making into a sand castle? Is chock full of micro-crustaceans.

Doesn't matter if the water is 10 degrees fahrenheit with an icy crust or 80 and clear blue; rocky shores with mud, or powdery sugar sand. (Matter of fact, there's a whole other cool set of critters living in muddy substrates.)

It's cute too.

… having lived near beaches for so many years, I really took pause.

Just how minute a world is it? I will have to stay tuned. I wonder if you've ever been able to examine those little critters on the human skin!

You need SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) for creatures that small. The wavelength of visible light is just too long to be of any use in capturing something that small in any detail.

The only familiarity I had with these mites is their link to asthma. Some sensitive persons, after a while of sleeping on the pillow are allergic to the feces of these critters that settle into a pillow (which is why pillows should either be encased, or changed often enough.

Hey… you can't live without waste disposal!