Crisp packet ecology

This morning I went for a swim in the sea first thing, and as I swam around looking at the shallow sandy bottom, I saw a crisp packet. I picked it up to throw away, because apparently turtles and whatnot eat plastic bags thinking they're jellyfish (although this was quite a colourful bag). I picked it up carefully from the bottom by one corner and shook out the contents in case there was something poisonous inside. Out fell a few pebbles (which had been keeping it on the bottom) and a small hermit crab, which started wandering around apparently aimlessly. I felt a bit bad for the crab, but thought it would probably find another place to shelter.

I started swimming to the beach to throw the packet out/away, then as I went I noticed that attached inside the packet there were a load of translucent white spheroids, about the size of marbles or a bit smaller. They looked like eggs, so then I felt even worse for the hermit crab who had been deprived of his/her brood (and for the "eggs" themselves, which would dry out in the sun). I wondered about the pros and cons of throwing the packet in a bin or putting it back, then I swam back and managed to find the place where I'd picked it up. The hermit crab was still wandering around. I put a couple of pebbles back in the bag (trying not to damage the eggs), and tried to put it where the crab could go in; but instead it kept running away from the descending bag and hand. In the end I left the packet on the bottom and thought the crab would probably find its way back in if it wanted. As I watched a tiny fish (the size of a fingernail maybe) appeared and went inside the bag to explore.

I'm still not sure if I did the right thing... Maybe the crab would *eat* the eggs - on reflection they seemed too big to belong to it. Which is fair enough, crabs need to eat.