The horseshoe crab has survived since before the dinosaurs, but human activity in mere decades has pushed the species toward an unsustainable population.
The Center for Biological Diversity this week sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for missing a May 2024 deadline to decide whether the crab needs protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Populations are down more than 70 percent, driven by overharvesting for biomedical blood testing and fishing bait, along with habitat loss from development and sea-level rise.
The center joined 25 organizations to petition the agency in February 2024 to protect the crabs, who live along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
“Horseshoe crabs have saved so many people (through medical testing), and now it’s up to us to pay back that debt and save them,” Will Harlan, a senior scientist at the center, said. “We could lose these living fossils forever if they don’t get Endangered Species Act protections soon."
Horseshoe crabs are also harvested for use as bait by the commercial whelk and eel fisheries. Even though horseshoe crab populations have fallen to historic lows, fishing regulators have increased the amount of horseshoe crabs that can be harvested.
In addition, development and sea-level rise are threatening horseshoe crabs and their spawning beaches across their entire range from Maine to Louisiana.
Nearly twice as old as the dinosaurs, horseshoe crabs have been crawling ashore for more than 450 million years. They are brown, body-armored arthropods with 10 eyes and a long, spiked tail. Each spring horseshoe crabs lay their eggs on beaches in massive spawning events.
As horseshoe crabs have declined, so have other species such as endangered sea turtles, fish and birds.
The rufa red knot, a shorebird species that feeds on horseshoe crab eggs during its 19,000-mile migration from South America to the Arctic, was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2015.
The listing decision cited horseshoe crab overharvesting as one of the contributing factors to the red knot’s decline.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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