Rescuing Horseshoe Crabs
I went to the beach last weekend in January to see the amazing shorebirds that visit our shores in winter. I wasn't expecting to find hundreds of the Atlantic horseshoe crabs stranded on the beach. Apparently a storm had come and the crabs were washed up from their deep water resting spots high onto the beach. Horseshoe crabs have gills and can breathe on land as long as the gills remain moist or so I read. Overturned high on the beach or mired in dry sand at the high tide line, they are vulnerable to drying out before they can get to the water or being eaten by predators.
I thought they were dead. But then I saw some still moving. In fact, a great number of them were still alive. As I was watched, a family came by and began gently picking up the horseshoe crabs, on after another, and bringing them back to the edge of the sea. I said hello and then joined in carrying these amazing creatures back to waves. I think I brought a hundred or so to the water that day. Not all of them will make it, I know, but many revived in the water and crawled back into the welcoming waves. Others roused after an hour or so and began to crawl forward. So many people stopped to ask about the horseshoe crabs and a few picked up several crabs (by their outside of their shells is best!) and carried them to the water. I was struck by how people cared about these ancient creatures as well as how many crabs made it back to the sea that day.
Horseshoe crabs are ancient! They lived long ago (BEFORE the dinosaurs!!!) as old at 440 to 480 million years ago and looked then basically the same as they are now. Although they may look intimidating, they are completely harmless. Their tiny claws can't pinch and their long point, spear-like tails don't sting. They can't bite. They are all defense, not offense. Their long tails help them overturn if they get flipped over in the waves. They are gentle, magnificent, and have TEN eyes!!! Two big eyes on the sides we most often notice and the rest are light sensors scattered over their whole bodies.
Our modern connection to these ancient creatures just gets weirder... did you know we rely heavily on horseshoe crab blood (which is also copper-based and blue!) for detecting contaminants in antibiotics, vaccines (yes, including the COVID vaccine!), and surgical devices and implants? Anytime you get something injected in your body, did you know you have horseshoe crabs to thank for the testing of that substance? In fact, horseshoe crab blood is so good at detecting trace contaminants, we do not have, or have not been able to develop, a synthetic alternative that can perform nearly as well as the limulus ambiocyte lysates (LAL) that we get from horseshoe crab blood. Every year horseshoe crabs are harvested in spring when they come to mate on the beach, are bled (each crab contributes about 100 ml of blood) and then returned to the ocean. In an ideal world, this blood donation (thank you, crabs!) doesn't hurt them at all and they can recover. Yet as our weather gets weirder and climate becomes uncertain, it becomes increasingly important to make sure these crabs are treated well, recover well, and are looked after by all of us, industry and individuals alike.
We are needed now to step up and care for our ecosystems in a way we haven't really done before. A single horseshoe crab female can lay 3,ooo to 4,ooo eggs at a time, and as many as 80,000 in a single spawning season. Some of the crabs I carried to the ocean that winter day were massive females. Can you imagine if just 5 female crabs survived, that could be as many as 400,000 eggs! The nutrient-rich eggs are essential food for so many creatures including sea turtles, sharks and migrating shorebirds. This is especially the case for a bird called the Red Knot which depends heavily on horseshoe crab eggs to make its 10,000 mile epic migration from the tip of South America to the Canadian Arctic every year.
I must say that seeing so many people on the beach rescuing horseshoe crabs brought tears to my eyes. One woman who was there said it best, "These creatures are magnificent. It means so much that people care. It restores my faith in humanity to see people bringing them back to the ocean."
Small acts. That's what they are. Yet the ripple effect of what we do is hard to quantify. We saw so many other people that day picking up trash along the beach, too. I came home inspired.
Here are some Tips for Rescuing Horseshoe crabs from ReTURN the Favor, a horseshoe crab conservation non-profit in New Jersey (http://returnthefavornj.org/):
1. Hold crabs by their sides, not the tail – crabs are harmless!
2. Gently place crabs on their feet pointing towards the water.
3. Leave crabs where you find them – do not remove live or dead crabs from the beach.
4. If you encounter shorebirds please do not disturb them – walk well away from flocks to allow them to feed and roost undisturbed – or end your walk.
5. Do not enter a closed beach (closed for shorebirds) unless you are on a sanctioned reTURN the Favor walk, and only from sunset to sunrise.
6. On open beaches, plan your outing around a falling or low tide.
7. Obtain permission before entering private property.
Horseshoe crabs spawn from April to early June. If you live near a beach with horseshoe crabs, check out any volunteer opportunities to support these amazing creatures we depend so directly for our own health and the health of our ecosystems.
Want to learn more fun facts about horseshoe crabs? Check out the podcast called "Horseshoe Crabs: Prehistoric Paramedics" or see the 16 minute video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/271427041