Stories about Horseshoe Crabs

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Students learn about conservation and the horseshoe crab

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Here’s an interesting story I came across about how more than 80 students from all over Maryland made it a classroom project to raise and release horseshoe crabs into the wild.

This is a great way for students to learn about how one seemingly unimportant species can play an important role in the ecological web and also their importance to even our own lives.

They also learn about how to protect our environment and to get some hands on experience in how it feels to take an active role in preserving our planet.

You can read more about this program in Maryland from http://burning-daylight.blogspot.com.

This program and others like it should be instigated and maybe even made mandatory in schools nation wide.

Tags: Horseshoe Crab Conservation
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Horseshoe Crabs and Shore Birds Everywhere

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

It’s getting that time of year. The next couple weeks is when the horseshoe crabs come to the beaches in Delaware area to spawn and the shore birds gather in huge numbers to get their fill of horseshoe crab eggs before continuing on their annual migration journey.

If you’ve never seen this, this is something that you should experience.

Also the Horseshoe Crab/Shorebird Festival starts this Friday and runs through Sunday on the Broadkill River at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Milton, Delaware. You can enjoy barbecue, tours of the refuge and entertainment while learning about the shore bird and horseshoe crab connection. If you want to come join the festivities you can get times and more information by visiting www.retiretomilton.com

One of the events of the season is the annual horseshoe crab sensus that will be conducted from Maine to Florida by numorous organizations. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the restrictions that many of the states have placed on horseshoe crab harvesting has helped the horseshoe crab population to rebound from it’s population dip in the last couple of decades.

Tags: Delaware horseshoe crabs, horseshoe crab sensus
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Hunting for Horseshoe Crab Shells

Monday, May 11th, 2009

I was out hunting for more horseshoe crab shells last weekend. I went down to Eddi Creek which leads into Mosquito Lagoon just a couple of miles from my home.This area is part of Merrit Island animal reserve, which surrounds the Kennedy Space Center. (where they launch the shuttle from)

With the storm just off the coast though, we’ve been getting pounded with high winds and rain the last week, so the lagoon water was really high so I didn’t have a lot of luck getting the shells. I did get one (I usually pick up about a hundred or so per trip) … but mostly I got wet. With the water being so high I was doing a lot of wading.

It is always an adventure though. Just take a look at this guy that was watching me the whole time. He made me a little nervous, he just kept following me around.