[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/EW-02-04-14-Horseshoe-Crabs.mp3|titles=EW 02-04-14 Horseshoe Crabs]
For 475 million years, horseshoe crabs have inhabited the Earth. Currently, their largest numbers are on the Eastern Seaboard, particularly in the Delaware Bay off the coasts of Delaware and New Jersey, where horseshoe crabs lay their eggs each spring.
In recent years, these ancient creatures have been in decline, in part due to their use as bait for catching eel and conch. And as their numbers have waned, so has another Delaware Bay fixture: small shorebirds called red knots.
Red knots arrive by the thousands each spring to feed on horseshoe crab eggs, a much-needed feast that fuels their 9,300-mile trip from Tierra del Fuego to the Canadian Arctic. But since the 1980s, the number of red knots in the Delaware Bay has dropped by some 70 percent. And now, they are being considered for ‘threatened’ status under the Endangered Species Act.
It’s not just the red knots that depend on horseshoe crabs. The crabs also play a role in the biomedical industry, where their blood is used to create a clotting agent that can test for bacterial contamination in medicines and medical devices. Crabs are caught and a small amount of their blood extracted. But many die upon release, and demand is growing.
With the future of both horseshoe crabs and red knots at stake, biomedical industry representatives have agreed to meet with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to discuss ways to reduce crab mortality. And further protection may also be proposed against using the crabs as bait, a process made easier by the recent development of an alternative bait product by researchers at the University of Delaware.
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Web Links
Bait alternative
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/may/artificial-bait-052913.html
A Bird Whose Life Depends on a Crab
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/opinion/a-bird-whose-life-depends-on-a-crab.html?src=recg&_r=0
Red knots elusive as US considers threatened status
Photo, taken on May 14, 2003, courtesy of Robert Pos via Flickr.
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