For those of you not close enough to see the water on a daily basis Horseshoe Crab breeding season is here.
During the breeding season, Horseshoe crabs migrate to shallow coastal waters. Males select a female and cling onto her back. The female digs a hole in the sand and lays her eggs while the male fertilizes them. The female can lay between 60,000-120,000 eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time. Many shore birds eat the eggs before they hatch. The eggs take about 2 weeks to hatch. The larvae molt six times during the first year.
Horseshoe Crab Facts & Figures
- Despite their size and intimidating appearance, horseshoe crabs are not dangerous.
- A horseshoe crab’s tail, while menacing, is not a weapon. Instead, the tail is used to plow the crab through the sand and muck, to act as a rudder, and to right the crab when it accidentally tips over.
- The horseshoe crab’s central mouth is surrounded by its legs and while harmless, it is advisable to handle a horseshoe crab with care since you could pinch your fingers between the two parts of its shell while holding it.
- Horseshoe crabs have 2 compound eyes on the top of their shells with a range of about 3 feet. The eyes are used for locating mates.
- Horseshoe crabs can swim upside down in the open ocean using their dozen legs (most with claws) and a flap hiding nearly 200 flattened gills to propel themselves.
- Horseshoe crabs feed mostly at night and burrow for worms and mollusks. They will, however, feed at any time.
- Horseshoe crabs grow by molting and emerge 25 percent larger with each molt. After 16 molts (usually between 9 and 12 years) they will be fully grown adults.
- Horseshoe crab eggs are important food for migratory shore birds that pass over the Delaware Bay during the spring mating season. Fish also eat the juveniles or recent molts.
- In the 1900s, horseshoe crabs were dried for use as fertilizer and poultry food supplements before the advent of artificial fertilizers.
- The medical profession uses an extract from the horseshoe crab’s blue, copper-based blood called lysate to test the purity of medicines. Certain properties of the shell have also been used to speed blood clotting and to make absorbable sutures.
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I saw a special on televsion about these the other day. Seems like they're endagered now (even before the oil spill) because of over fishing. There's since been revised fishing laws and new program where the medical profession drains a percentage of their blood and them dumps them back. Very interesting creatures, that have been around I think for at least 250 million years.
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Aside from single celled organisms they are one of the oldest living species on the planet, out dating all of the dinosaurs.
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Good info Dan. Though not endangered yet, they are in steep decline. So are the birds that feed on their eggs, Red Knots. They are harvested in the thousands by Asians for fishing. Last year at The Point we happened on a guy fishing and on the beach next to his stuff was a pile of them, dying in the sand. I went over to pick one up and the guy said, "don't touch that, it'll sting ya." I explained to him that they don't sting and he was like "yes they do, with their tail". I couldn't believe that a fisherman with all the best equipment could be so ignorant! We threw all of them back in and I told the guy to look it up. I hate to see them this time of year at low tide crushed by the dirt bikers and ATV riders who run them over on purpose on the beach. Imagine your a female horseshoe crab, dig a nice hole, minding your own business, laying your eggs and then get your shell crushed by a dirt bike. It must suck! : ) They feel pain and suffer like any other living thing. Anybody who has time to take a walk down there, pick up the stranded ones by the tail and throw them back in, THEY WON"T STING YA, THEY"LL THANK YA! Good Karma!
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