Why Are There 30 MILLION Horseshoe Crabs On This East Coast Beach? (feat.
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2024
- Thanks to @KQEDDeepLook for collaborating on this episode. Check out their episode here - • Once a Spawn a Time: H...
Horseshoe crabs spend most of their lives in the ocean depths. But every May and June, their spindly little legs will carry them 60 miles or more to congregate on sandy beaches up and down the Atlantic coast. Nowhere are their numbers greater than in Delaware Bay. As many as 30 million crabs - a population the size of Shanghai, China - descend on these shores. What are they all up to?
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Those two people flipping crabs at the end to save them were adorable. Such a small thing probably makes such an impact every year.
Doesn't that effect the survival of the fittest? And what about the animals that rely on those carcasses?
@@markfairbanks3533 The usual procedure is merely to turn upside-down ones over facing back towards the sea, everything else is on the crabs from there. Migrating all the way to the beach, then getting past the waves back out to sea entirely on their own is plenty of a fitness test. Birds and other animals do not depend on their carcasses. Several endangered species of migrating birds are EXTREMELY dependent on refueling by eating large quantities of the eggs, while the carcasses have very little that is edible for birds between little meat and a tough outer skin that is difficult to get through. The eggs are far easier to access and very nutritionally dense. Horseshoe crabs were so useful to humans as fertilizer and fishing bait because they're so easy to catch AND we use machines to grind thousands of them up into itty bitty pieces. Birds and other animals do not have that ability. More crabs saved means thousands more eggs for the food web to recover and survive alongside us humans.
Horseshoe crabs are endangered entirely because of humans: VERY heavy overfishing in the past, still-ongoing habitat destruction by humans, and up to 30% dying during blood harvesting despite best efforts to keep all alive and return to sea. Their blood is one-of-a-kind and absolutely VITAL for medical research that saves countless human and animal lives and greatly improves quality of life. The alternative has bee using live rabbits, so it is significantly reducing live animal testing too.
We are entirely responsible for the heavy reduction in horseshoe crabs and the birds and turtles that are dependent on them. If you're ever in an area while rescue walks are available to sign up (ex. returnthefavornj.org), I recommend the experience.
@@aste4949 thank you for the well thought out reply!
@@markfairbanks3533 Wow thank you for listening and glad you weren't offended! Horseshoe crabs are one of my favorite animals and I raise awareness about how harmless and amazing they are whenever I can, even though I live far inland and not a biologist or medical scientist.
@@aste4949 everytime i visit the outer banks, we always find at least one dead, and it's nothing but a partial shell, so i figured they were scavenged by something. My brother in law is a micro biologist who specializes in beach/coastal ecosystems in and around NC, but has never shared info on the horseshoe crabs. Now i know if i ever see one alive on the beach to save it.
Thanks for the collab!! Really Beautiful episode. From up high, they remind us of tadpoles!
deep look sent us.
Thanks for referring us to this channel, Deep Look.
Yea deep look sent us
Deep look sent me
As always one of my favorite CZcams channels... Nice.
They climb on my feet when I’m fishing. I think they like my purple crocs because they are colorful. The reason I don’t freak out is because from a young age people would come to my elementary school with horseshoe crabs every year and teach us that they are 100% harmless, can’t sting because their tail is a rudder, and then we got to pet them. I think I’d be terrified if I wasn’t exposed to them as a kid and taught to not be scared of a huge prehistoric dome with eyeballs and a scary looking tail climbing all over my feet lol. I definitely make more of an effort to look out for them than if I was scared of them. Also as a biology major I get excited when I see them because I immediately think “Woah, that animal has a direct ancestry that’s 445 million years old!”
People who doesn't get taught about which animals can cause harm and which ones are harmless grow up being scared of weird things that make no sense, like crickets or moths... they literally can't hurt you, you can grab and chuck them out the window safely. It's much better to be curious and learn early on to not develop dumb phobias like that, and only fear what is actually dangerous.
They used to freak me out. Then I went out to the DE bay and started saving them (esp the ones that got stuck in the rocky area by Port Mohan).. but I still wouldn't touch the underside 'cause eww. But I knew they were harmless and when I was at a visitors center with a touch tank and a kid was interested-but scared.. I sucked it up and picked one up and showed the boy how harmless they really were. I forced myself over a decades old irrational fear for a strangers son. Now I make yearly trips out to the bay (well, not last year 'cause COVID) and there was a crew filming for a documentary this year (this one maybe?) and you meet the neatest people on the beach during the full moon when they are spawning :). And then the next day you go back out and flip the ones that get stuck.
Aquarium @inner harbor
"Every time I see this these crabs I just go, 'This is so freaking cool'!"
I understand.
This is no crab right?
@@mushroomng1739 From what I've learned, horseshoe crabs aren't true crabs even though that's what they're called. I'm not a biologist, though.
One of my college friend's younger brother was saved back in the 80s by a test for spinal meningitis that used horseshoe crab blood. He was able to be diagnosed and treated promptly with the correct information.
i can't help but wonder if the 50k+ crabs who die each yr after being captured, propped up and bled for 30% of their blood are happy to have died for your friends' younger brother and the like - would you be? personally i'd rather not be used and abused for the sake of other ppl but i realize many ppl don't see animals as beings worthy of the same respect some humin beings recieve. as it is with humanity, some lives count and some don't : the deaths/torture and discomfort of lab animals and such are just something scientists et al are willing to sacrifice
@@ara.may.sauvage Fellow environmentalist, please consider all this nuance to the issue:
-The vital importance of horseshoe crab blood to medical research is a HUGE motivator and source of support for conserving BOTH the horseshoe crabs AND their habitats. It helps sway many people and thus societal attitudes and laws who would otherwise feel there is no reason to save these creatures and/or their habitats.
-Part of why laws and public opinion about harvesting these easy-to-catch crabs by the thousands to grind them up for fertilizer and bait changed is motivated by their crucial use in medical research.
-The tests, research, and medicines help save and treat tons of fellow animal lives too, from pets to livestock to endangered wild animals. It does not only help us humans be healthier and have better quality of life.
- The alternative has been using live rabbits and their blood.
I absolutely want us to achieve alternatives that don't need any animal parts for testing, but until we get there horseshoe crab blood and at least 70% survival rate is important. Especially because it gives society bigger reasons and pressure to conserve both the crabs and their habitats than what those "tree-hugging hippies and alarmist environmentalists say we 'should' do." Yes it is terrible that it takes blood harvesting with some deaths to motivate people to help the environment and wildlife, but that is still a huge boon while most other conservation efforts do not have such a powerful tool for swaying public opinion and legislation. The crabs' usefulness in medicine saves countless wild birds too by saving the crabs' numbers and habitat.
Lastly, would you really say your mom's, sibling's, best friend's, beloved pet's, etc lives are equal in value to a horseshoe crab having its blood drawn then being released? That you would rather see someone you dearly love suffer, be heavily disabled for life, and/or die in exchange for one horseshoe crab not having its blood drawn and then being released? I want better survival rates and less blood drawn, but what we currently have is not something to cease entirely yet.
One thing I've seen with the COVID-19 pandemic is how easy it is for us to be fine with sacrificing human lives for the "greater good" and how very, very, very different it is once you and your loved ones are face-to-face with crippling illness and death.
I love going on these official rescue walks, like from ReTURN the Favor in NJ. Least we can do to help these amazing creatures and their ecosystems recover.
@@aste4949 i doubt you have witnessed the process they use if you say such an inane thing. their only motivation is the quick money.
@@aste4949 @Aste ... the lengths you went to justify what ppl do to horseshoe crabs is impressive, to say the least.
what i've noticed, since way before covid, is how easily and how willingly humans are to sacrifice the lives of other beings - especially animals. sometimes accompanied by feigning how they don't really want to cause pain to others/animals, but gosh darnit, their mothers' best friends' cousin might be heavily disabled for life or die if "one horshoe crab" doesn't have it's blood drawn, so the ends justify the needs because apparently it's just one crab for you. but it isn't just one is it? how many millions have died or been tortured or otherwise mistreated and disrespected? it's not like they volunteered to go thru the stress and trauma of being captured and man- handled then further defiled by humanity as blood was drained from them.
i might be a minority tho as most folx seem to be like you and will always find a way to justify using and hurting others 🤷🏽♀️
but egad, imagine if you're reincarnated into a horshoe crab?!
@@ara.may.sauvage Ever had BBQ crabs?? There's a restaurant in Texas that sacrifices crabs for me and then adds a custom BBQ seasoning. They are the greatest.
If I'm ever on an alien planet and I see a horseshoe crab, I'd probably think "yeah, makes sense".
No such thing as an “alien planet”, it’s all made up science fiction bs
@@capoislamort100 Just because it hasn't been observed or recorded by us yet doesn't mean that it's entirely science fiction bs.
@@capoislamort100 and we’re also not supposed to eat crab, nor shrimp, nor lobster, nor oysters nor anything with a shell, nor Pork, nor vaccines.
It would be convergent evolution at its finest.
@@yamaldawadad7324 You're also not supposed to mix fabrics, to mark slaves by putting an awl through their ear, and to cure skin diseases with the blood of lambs or doves.
Good thing we've advanced past such ancient drivel.
who doesn't love a prehistoric sea roomba
That is quite possibly the most funny description I've ever heard 🤣
“They like to spawn high on the beach”: Doesn’t everyone?
Lol just be careful of sand. It is ehh not pleasant.
@@peterisawesomeplease it's course and rough and it gets everywhere
The "spawning scene" on the beach in the movie "From Here To Eternity looked hot and sexy but the reality would have been a little more cold and gritty.
Under the broadwalk.
@@Aaron-io8vw "broadwalk"? I think you meant *boardwalk*! It's OK, just blame autocorrect!
I keep a horseshoe crab in my reef tank. I had no idea till it happened but, he swims around the tank upside-down. He uses his body like a board and paddles with his legs to keep from sinking. He's rather blind and runs into all of my expensive coral but, it's rather interesting to watch when it happens.
How big is that tank?
Was just thinking about what having a pet horseshoe crab would be like haha you must have a really big tank I'm guessing?
@@AH-pu8iu he hides under the sand 90% of the time so, you're not missing out on much lol
@@Jay-ho9io 250 gallons
@@Knives323 Brine shrimp are also swimming upside down.
I grew up near Lewes, DE. Horseshoe crabs are so cool. Gentle, scary looking beasts.
I was stationed in Cuba years ago and around May these weird crabs with one claw used to hit the beach. We were in old WWII barracks and the were no doors or windows hung because of the heat. At night you could hear the little buggers running around under the bunks.
Guantanamo Bay?
I didn't know the crab rave was legit
I am a little disappointed the Crab Rave song wasn't used.
Im lucky. I get to live on this beach. I’ve turned thousands of these crabs.
Me: Hmm can't sleep wonder why there are so many crabs on this beach?
PBS: *CRAB SMUT*
Sheldon Shellondorf Splatoon is a prime example of proper horseshoe crab recognition.
That, and I love these creatures! They are so fascinating!
Great job in show how changes to one creature affects many others and easily upsets the balance. Deep look sent me here!
I wonder how the location of these parties has moved over earth’s history. where on Pangea did they do this?
it's actually incredible you mention that because these creatures came about 250 million years ago which would've been prime pangea time. there's no way these parties could've been held here initially.
That's a really interesting thought, I'm sure fossil records could give us an idea
@@ravemasterdbzwwe I think the other video said something more like 400 million didn't it? either way it all suuuper facinating =)
That's a really good question. By the time of the Pangea during Permian to the Triassic, most of the eastern side of the US was still inland attached to what is now northwest of Africa. The closest location of the "east coast" would be the beginning of what became the ancient Tethys Sea which separates what becomes the Mediterranean and the northern coast of Africa. Even by the Triassic, the Tethys Sea gradually becomes slowly surrounded by Europe which was still a bunch of islands and north of Africa; the eastern coastline of the US opened up from the south from Mexico and just about where Nova Scotia would be.
Where would the horseshoe crabs be at this point? Were they on the east coast or were they on the ancient Pacific Ocean also known as the Panthalassic Ocean on the west coast?
I wonder if Horseshoe crabs way back then were of freshwater to marine/brackish type creature much like how some freshwater shrimp develop or like the salmon which spawn and lay eggs in freshwater then gradually move downstream to live a majority of their life in the sea.
No particular reason to assume they even used to spawn on land back then that I'm aware of. While the overall morphology remained much the same, the reproduction strategy could have varied over the tens of millions of years. Spawning on land is mostly a strategy against predation, and they had very different predators back then. It's even possible that they've switched between land, shallows, and deep ocean multiple times during that time span.
Deep Look sent me, and this was equally as delightful and educational as their video.
Two of my fave CZcams channels collabing?!? Doooope! 😊
Forgot to say that after blood harvesting the crabs are released back into the ocean alive and kicking! I've also gone on a couple of official rescue-and-data-logging walks, and have gotten friends into it too. We ONLY touch crabs that are upside-down and still alive. While turning them over we note down the sex (can only tell that from underside), then carefully turn them back over facing the ocean. It's on the crabs to walk back to the water from there.
If there's more than a few migratory birds in the walk route the guide takes us elsewhere so that we don't disturb the flocks.
Love the experience, even though you might get a lot of bug bites! I recommend doing it at least once if you're in the area. Fascinating creatures, their undersized wig me out a bit but it is still so amazing to see these creatures.
Forgot to mention that a lot still die while their blood is being harvested.
This gives crab rave a whole new sense
Killing me with the innuendo and EDM music! 😂
Trilobites coming back from the ancient dead
Absolutely beautiful!
I really enjoyed this, thank you!
I was a young boy on narrow river, RI, in 1980. I used to trap eel with pots and horse shoe 🦀 was the best bait. Other baits were almost non starters.
that was a freaking good watch!
As a very young kid, I thought that Horseshoe Crabs are super cool!!
They are off the Jersey shore and I saw them near the Statue of Liberty pier which is between Jersey City and Bayonne and I used to swim out to the Statue Island years ago. On the beach where the oil tanks were down to Staten Island especially near the Atlantic Highlands there were times when they were everywhere back in the 60's!
Brings the term blood money to a new level
Cool stuff thanks for sharing
3:02 Why do they look like the Xenomorph facehugger embryos from ALIEN: Covenant?
You stated your question backwards. The facehugger's look like horseshoe crabs because, well, just look at those crabs! For a horror movie filmmaker, a horseshoe crabs' appearance is just too weird to waste.
Neat-o! They always reminded me of scarabs for some reason... Maybe because they seem so prehistoric
I just learned about horseshoe crabs for the first time, this video was amazing. Growing up and beaching in NYC my whole life... far Rockaway and the beaches in Long Island always had horseshoe crabs once in a while. I never knew how ancient they were, thankfully I wasn't the type to try and kill them. As some other kids would do.. always thought that was weird, to just want to kill something in the ocean for no reason.
Great vid. 😎☘️🇺🇸
Saw them all the time in Revere, Mass. They were really cool looking. I knew about their blood since I was a teen so I would flip them over and get them out of trouble when I saw it. But down there, yikes! I wonder if those people counting them dream for weeks after about nothing but horseshoe crabs, lol!
Thanks for this awesome video. Stay safe!
(Edit: misspelling)
Nope, no dreams for me lol
The annual count relies heavily on volunteers, so if you live here (like I do), please consider volunteering and help in protecting this nationally vital natural resource.
The embro-implanting crab or lobster-like critters in the Alien movies always reminded me a bit of horseshoe crabs on meth. Horseshoe crabs are actually very interesting critters, I saw them every spring on the shores of Long Island Sound.
I've seen them on Monomoy Island man years back. Aother time I saw the beach in Hyannis covered with shed exoskeltons. I still have one
I was watching this thinking “huh guess they don’t do this on my beach.” But then what are the odds I saw your comment, Revere is where I live, lol! I must being going at the wrong times. Pretty kitties in your profile pic, by the way! Take care
Love this
we need as much of those crabs as we can get.
Deep look sent me here. I'm glad they did!
I seen this 4 yrs old in Mississippi in 1974, it was amazing and scared me
growing up on long island sound i remember many horseshoe crabs in the summer
Remember the first time we saw them in 1973 when we moved to Satellite Beach in Florida, they were along the Banana River.
I remember being a kid in Ocean City MD walking along the bay at night and seeing thousands and thousands of them doing this
Born and raised here and this yearly spawn has actually dropped in recent years do to them being used in cancer research. The numbers have rebounded, now if we could only get the big sea trout and flounder back. The bay used to have unbelievable fishing in years past.
these little things are my favourite
0:27 Was I the only one expecting crab rave to be playing in the intro? 🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀
Having grown up in Connecticut I’m so used to seeing them every year, I had no idea they weren’t found anywhere but the east coast until I moved to denver and one of my friends thought they weren’t a real thing lol
Reminds me of this party back in '73...
I SAVED A FEW IN MY DAY
Amazing!
I was a kid in Virginia in the late 70's and I saw these on the beach a few times, I always found them to be fascinating, and I am glad that the research using their (BLUE) blood for vaccines etc., but we need to help keep them safe and alive, who knows, they may be here to do research on us.
I’m happy to see animals in the millions, I enjoy seeing animals more than humans.
They don't "look" unassuming, they ARE unassuming!!
That should be a protected nature reserve if it isn't already.
Many to most of their main breeding beaches are protected no-trespassing zones now for both the crabs and the migrating birds. These horseshoe crabs are also an endangered and protected species. If you're ever able to go on an official rescue walk during their breeding season, I recommend it!
A lot of horseshoe crabs washed ashore dead w/the red tide bloom in the Gulf this year. I'm glad to see somewhere else in the world where they're thriving.
That is super cool
These animals have been around for so long I don't think they will die from dehydration due to the sheer fact 400 million years ago the climate was different than it was far worse in terms of temperature
Far worse or far better? Makes you think doesn't it? How can higher temperature be considered bad when the bio diversity was at its greatest?
@@almac9203 Dude it is the rapid SPEED of warming that is the problem: shooting up in the span of a century or two instead of gradually over tens of thousands to millions of years. On evolutionary and geological time a century or two is the blink of an eye, like having a car hurtling at you full-speed versus a steam roller hurtling at you full speed. The steam roller is slow enough that you can move to safety before it hits you. The car is so much faster that your odds of dodging out of the way are much worse. Now multiply that experience by billions, and every person trying to dodge is a species. Some will dodge the cars and get to safety, some will not be so lucky. Versus if it was an army of steamrollers coming at everyone, which most people will be able to evade since it is so much slower.
Dehydration??? Do you mean over-harvesting by the tens of thousands grinding them up for fertilizer and bait, and the resulting massive decrease in their nutrition-packed eggs that in turn severely hurt endangered migrating birds? All numbers are thankfully recovering with the horseshoe crabs and some of their beaches being legally protected now, but habitat destruction is still a problem. I do think at least our Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs have very good odds of recovering now.
The ones caught and their blood drawn are released back into the wild alive, and no catching is done during breeding season.
@Brandon Jones That does not change how the rapid speed is the biggest problem, and why ramping back emissions is such a big action plan. A slower temperature change means significantly more time for lifeforms to adapt and for us to fix things.
I used to play with them when I was a kid in NYC , in canarsie area...we used to have so much fun back then, kids just having fun in nature...🦗🏝️🙏😇🕊️😂😂
I do like that the drone offered only ancillary footage.
She saves 'one more crab' in the name of 'the circle of life', thus denying life-giving nutrients to untold microscopic lives in the sand. The squiggly-line of death.
I would have been here anyway, but Deep Look sent me nonetheless
Beautiful
I thought I recognized Joe's voice!
Such a cool interesting creature and my dad told me about the just flip em so I do that everytime I see one
Awesome! I remember seeing these for the first time as a kid 25 years ago.
Now I’m gonna have to go there and catch some to cook
Beautiful 😍
Many crab species all over the world do mass mating migrations and all crabs are related to land arthropods. What makes horseshoe crabs truly "special" is that they haven't changed much in almost a half billion years.
So the crabs get luckier than the humans who go to the beach to make a connection. Been doing it for millions of years. They got it down pat.
Unlike humans,, the horseshoe crabs aren't deterred when sand gets inside of all the wrong places....
This is the irl CRAB RAVE PARTY
Fun fact... before being separated by continental drift, North America use to be part of Rigel 4.
Which is why the horseshoe crabs still come to eastern seaboard of the USA even after umpity millions and zillions of years.
Fact checkers say..."True!"
Its like that one episode of Pokemon where there were a lot of Kabuto
Awesome
It is all crab, bby. 🦀
Crab Rave!!!
I went fishing many moons ago at Great Bay in Newmarket NH and forgot my bait. I saw a horseshoe crab 🦀 for the first time, regrettably used it for bait. There was very little meat.
That 9,000 miles migration tho!
So this is what that episode of Futurama was based on
Deep look sent us
On this episode of Crabs Gone Wild!
Are they related to trilobites?
I sell lobsters for a living lobsters are fascinating too. They have personalities and with their long antenna they remind me of frenchmen from Quebec.
-Ryan from Newfoundland
Have you read "The Secret Life of Lobsters"? Fascinating stuff. Male lobsters are the bully-boys of the ocean floor; if they were human they'd be hanging out in dive bars and pool halls with a pack of Marlboros rolled up in the sleeve of their T-shirt, looking for women to fight over---- or just looking to fight for no particular reason. Girl lobsters have a secret weapon to tame these bad boys, however ---- something akin to what humans might call a "golden shower" in a hotel room with a Russian hooker. I'm not making this up.
Im just waiting for the Kabuto to evolve
Real life crab rave confirmed
Every summer, at Lewis Delaware
Cue the crab rave music
It’s crab season
Surprised we haven't turned them into a delicacy yet lol
from deep look sub, nice shoot and video, nice to know about this channel and you have a new sub.
Common in S. Fla 40 years ago & same as the Urchins. Both gone.
We don't have enough pokeballs for these
5:51 what method is she using to make these counts? Find some crabs and get as many as i can in this square by rotation it anyway I'd like also not collecting data from the point that have no crabs? A null result is still a result, no? I really am confused here, figured if i explain my confusion it might help someone clear this up for me...maybe?
Cool!
What do the birds eat on the way back south? If the red knot needs the eggs on the why doesn’t it “ need” the eggs on the way back?
Deep Look invited me here
Haha that's so me. I always say I'll just save another 10.... !
"Crab people! Crab People!"
Crab:Snip snap one wrong move and u will get snapped
DEEP LOOK SENT ME