Bo Petersen wrote this article about horseshoe crabs in the Post and Courier. Several Seabrookers thought it would of interest to everyone on our island:
“Vital horseshoe crabs come out in Lowcountry by the light of the moon.
If you see a horseshoe crab on its back, pick it up by the shell and carry it back to the water. Don’t grab by the trail, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources requests.
Eerie ancient creatures of the sea crawl out onto the beaches Monday and Tuesday night, a horde of them, to lay the last eggs of the season by the light of the full moon. If you see one on its back, turn it over and carry to the water, state regulators request.
The centurion-shelled horseshoe crab is one valuable arthropod. Its eggs are vital food for the endangered red knot in the bird’s epic hemispheric migration each year, and an extract of the crab’s blood is critical for tests to ensure medical equipment is kept bacteria-free.
So if you come across one overturned by a mishap or the tide, do it, the birds and yourself a favor. One in every 10 of the spawning crabs are said to die when they turn over on their backs. Just don’t grab it by the tail, that could injure the animal, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
“Their many legs and sharp tail might look fearsome, but horseshoe crabs are harmless to humans,” department staff said in a Facebook post.
Thousands of horseshoe crabs at a time are caught each year off Lowcountry beaches and sandbars by licensed harvesters. They are turned over to a local medical research lab to be bled, the returned to the water later that day. The industry is tightly regulated, but not all of the crabs survive.
They are not considered threatened, but are a protected species. The harvest has increased dramatically since the 1980s because the crab is eel and whelk bait as well as medicine. In New England and mid-Atlantic states the populations have plummeted. In South Carolina it appears to be stable because non-medical harvest has been banned.”
For more information on this article, click on this link: http://www.postandcourier.com/20160620/160629914/vital-horseshoe-crabs-come-out-in-lowcountry-by-the-light-of-the-moon
Submitted by Gary Fansler