Pop quiz: What currently living species emerged before dinosaurs and predates the appearance of the first trees anywhere on Earth? Bonus question: Why might they not be around much longer, and who is trying to save them (at least in New York)?
The first answer: the humble horseshoe crab, which emerged from the high tide by the light of a full moon almost half a billion years ago. Why their numbers are dwindling is more complex. It is the astonishing bad luck of horseshoe crabs to have blood that contains “limulus amebocyte lysate” (LAL), a chemical that is supremely sensitive to even the faintest trace of every conceivable kind of impurity. This makes their plasma (which is a rich shade of blue) better at testing medicines and surgical equipment for contaminants than any screening process yet devised by human ingenuity. It also means that their blood, which fetches $15,000 per quart, is almost as valuable as gold.
So horseshoe carbs are harvested by the millions each year, and sold to laboratories that extract their blood. They are also under pressure from fisherman, who chop them to pieces and use their remains as a free source of bait with which to catch other, more commercial species.
As the headcount of horseshoe crabs in New York waters has declined by more than half in recent decades, the effect of this die off has translated into a three-quarters drop in the population of migratory shore birds who depend on horseshoe crab eggs.
Enter State Assembly member Deborah Glick, representing Lower Manhattan, who sponsored a bill during the recently concluded legislative session in Albany to prohibit the harvesting of horseshoe crabs from any waters in New York state, including for commercial or biomedical purposes. The only exception provided for in the measure is “a bona fide educational or research purpose as approved by the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.”
Ms. Glick (who is chair of the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation) said, “horseshoe crabs are a fascinating keystone species that have existed on our planet for over 400 million years. Yet their evolutionary resilience is finally being tested by the actions of humans over the last few decades. Many other species rely on horseshoe crabs and their eggs for their continued survival. Current protections have been insufficient to protect the horseshoe crab from a precipitous decline and the New York population has been designated ‘poor’ by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission since 2019. This measure will protect this living fossil from experiencing a total population collapse.”
Ms. Glick’s bill passed the Assembly, while an identical measure (sponsored by Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal) also passed the upper house of the legislature. The bill now awaits Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature.
Editor’s note: Horseshoe crabs come ashore to lay eggs at beaches not far from Lower Manhattan. To catch a glimpse of a horseshoe crab, take a ferry to Staten Island or Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
At Conference House Park on the south shore of Staten Island, join the City’s Urban Park Rangers to monitor horseshoe crabs on June 19 and 21. Across the Hudson River in Liberty State Park, horseshoe crabs crawl ashore at a beautiful natural area called Caven Point. While New Jersey has banned horseshoe crab harvesting since 2008, the owner of Liberty National Golf Club—on land adjacent to Liberty State Park—has tried for years to acquire Caven Point for development. Earlier this year, New Jersey State Assembly member John Allen sponsored two Liberty State Park protection bills.