Crab Facts

"Downe's Own Ancient Mariners" ~ Beach by the Bay - Fortescue, NJ

Downe's Own Ancient Mariner.

Click on the logo above to go to ERDG's website!
To rescue Horseshoe Crabs that are on their backs gently flip them over
by holding the edge of their shell. Never use their tails! They can't pinch or bite you.
We thank you for helping our ancient friends so they are able to return next year.

Photo by Chris Flood

Horseshoe Crab Tagging Program is Useful and Fun!
Cape Gazette - Chris Flood December 29, 2023
Story Location: 3R’s Beach, Bethany Beach, DE 19930
One of the benefits of covering an area with beaches is that every now and then, when I’ve got a few moments in between assignments, I get to walk on one and get paid for it (don’t tell Gazette owner Chris Rausch). I enjoy getting out there because I never know what I’m going to find – most of the time it’s nothing, but sometimes it’s sea glass or a buoy or something even more random.
That’s what happened the other day while I was down at 3R’s Beach just south of the Indian River Inlet. I came across a horseshoe crab tag lying face down on top of the sand that had, presumably, been attached to one at some point in the not-too-distant past.
The tag is part of the Horseshoe Crab Cooperative Tagging Program, which began in May 1999. I recognised the small, white disc as a crab tag immediately because it’s the second I’ve found. A few years ago, after a winter storm, the family and I went out to The Point in Cape Henlopen State Park where we found one that was still attached to the crab.
The tag has a website on it – fws.gov/crab tag – and a tag number that scientists and biologists are using to collect data that will be used to inform management decisions about harvest rates.
“Coast-wide management of horseshoe crabs is essential to maintain healthy populations to benefit shorebirds, the biomedical industry and the commercial fishing industry,” says the description of the program.
The website also lists Meghan Walker, a fish biologist based out of Annapolis, Md., as the person who is overseeing the program. I reached out to her, and she gave some basic information on the program.
There has been a total of 414,071 tags released, with 52,885 unique crab recaptures, said Walker. The total number of recaptures is 70,607, but that includes multiple reports of the same crab seen on a beach, she said. What’s fun about the program, and something my kids still enjoy, is that a person receives a small pewter pin of a horseshoe crab and the history of that crab if they participate in the ongoing survey. All someone needs to do is provide a mailing address. I’m looking forward to getting mine.

Green Eggs and Sand In-Person Workshop - June 3 & 4, 2023
During the full and new moon events in May and June, thousands of horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn, primarily in Delaware Bay.
It is also during this time when migrating shorebirds descend upon the beaches to rest and feed on the horseshoe crab eggs before continuing onto their breeding grounds. This interaction between horseshoe crabs, shorebirds, and humans is what lays the groundwork for the Green Eggs & Sand (GE&S) workshop.
The GE&S workshop is a two-day workshop focused on understanding the issues, the science, and the management
of the horseshoe crab/shorebird controversy. Workshop participants learn from top researchers and natural
managers in the field, as well as get to participate in a horseshoe crab count.
Educators and natural resource managers from Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey developed the curriculum, and designed it for use with middle and high school students. It is broken down into four modules that introduce students to the lives of horseshoe crabs, their extraordinary history, ecological niche, interrelationships with other species, and the challenges of managing horseshoe crabs.
At the end of the workshop, participants take home the activity-rich GE&S curriculum package and video that have been correlated to the national-learning standards in science, social studies, math and language arts.
Registration Fee: $50.00
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For further information please contact Karen Byrne at 609-748-4347 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Glen Gauvry, (ERDG) One of 51 Nominees for
World's Leading Animal Conservation Award

Glenn Gauvry (Ecological Research & Development Group, ERDG, USA) – Engages citizens to participate in horseshoe crab conservation. Gauvry is responsible for creating the Just flip ‘em! ™ public awareness campaign to encourage individuals to help
rescue stranded horseshoe crabs. He is the founder of the Ecological Research & Development Group focused on the
conservation of the world’s four horseshoe crab species.

Article Below

INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE CONSERVATIONISTS CONTEND FOR TOP HONOR AND $250,000 PRIZE

Nominees for World's Leading Animal Conservation Award - October 18, 2022

Officials from the Indianapolis Prize announced 51 global leaders in the field of conservation as Nominees for the
2023 Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation. The 2023 Indianapolis Prize marks
nearly two decades of celebratingwildlife’s greatest champions.
The Indianapolis Prize elevates a message of hope for our planet and highlights the stories of the dedicated people
whose work not only saves species but ensures a sustainable future for generations to come.
“The 2023 Prize Nominees represent the most accomplished wildlife conservationists dedicated to protecting and
preserving animal species,” said Rob Shumaker, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Zoo. “It is an honor to highlight
their incredible work through the Indianapolis Prize.”
Nominees hail from countries across the globe with these individuals representing a diverse range of iconic
and elusive species from primates, reptiles and birds and many more. The Winner of the Indianapolis Prize
receives $250,000 while the five Finalists each receive $50,000.
Selecting the Finalists and Winner of the Indianapolis Prize is a two-step judging structure undertaken by the
Prize Nominating Committee and Jury comprised of internationally renowned conservationists and local Indianapolis
representatives, who select six Finalists and determine a Winner, respectively. The Finalists and Winner will be honored at the Indianapolis Prize Gala presented by Cummins Inc. on September 30, 2023.

Horseshoe Crabs in the Americas - 2/21/2021
Why Does SC Lab Bleed Horseshoe Crabs for Vaccine Testing?
South Carolina: Charles River, the only company permitted to purchase the animals in South Carolina, is after their blood. Copper-based and colored light blue, the fluid that runs through their hard bodies is exceptionally good at detecting a bacterial toxin that can cause organ failure or death in humans. For almost 30 years in a facility in Charleston, Charles River has bled the horseshoe crabs, then sold a test for contaminants using the blue blood called LAL, named after the species that lives along the Atlantic, Limulus polyphemus.

The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab

Report a Sighting.
Horseshoe Crab Sightings Click are shown on the maps below.
Go to www.horseshoecrab.org to report a sighting and utilize the interactive site map
to see locations in each state or country where horseshoe crabs can be seen.
If you have seen horseshoe crabs in a location not yet listed, please let them know!

Click on the image above to read more!

Dear friends and supporters!

With the beginning of the new horseshoe crab spawning season, ERDG has given its Just flip 'em!™ logo a facelift. We hope our new design will more easily encourage this simple act of compassion for a species that will not survive our indifference.

Just flip 'em!™ an ERDG program since 1998 is being practiced by coastal communities from Maine to the Yucatan Peninsula. Over the years this program has received broad support from individuals, coastal communities, nonprofit organizations, State and Federal agencies.

This year, our new logo has been placed on durable aluminum signs, suitable for outdoor use. Seventy of these signs have been installed along the beachfronts of sixteen Delaware and New Jersey Bayshore Communities, ten of which are participants in ERDG's Backyard Stewardship™Community Horseshoe Crab Sanctuary program, which also began in 1998. These new signs can be seen and purchased on our website at the Company Store.

If you live in an area where horseshoe crabs spawn and or have a friends or relatives who shares this habitat, please consider purchasing a sign for them, or DONATE to our organization, so that we can continue to provide our Just flip 'em!™ signs wherever needed.

If you haven't heard the "Official" ERDG Just flip 'em!™ Song, written for us by the award winning Makin’ Music Rockin’ Rhythms in 2001, check it out. If you wish to sing along, you can download a pdf. of the lyrics.

Please take a picture of you and your friends helping a stranded horseshoe crab and send it to us along with your name, date and where it was taken and we will post it on our Facebook page, which is seen and shared by other horseshoe crab conservationists around the world. Together we make a difference.

Thank you for your continued support, without which, our mission to protect the world's four horseshoe crab species would be much more difficult.

Glenn Gauvry
Founder & President ERDG

ERDG Needs Your Help

We recently rebuilt the “Conservation” section of our website http://horseshoecrab.org/conservation/ to bring awareness to
Who is doing What and Where for horseshoe crab conservation around the world. The development of this tool fulfills a
promise we made as part of the Education and Outreach working group objectives, outlined during the Third International Workshop on the Science and Conservation of Horseshoe Crabs held in Sasebo City, Nagasaki, Japan in 2015.

It is our hope, that this information will help facilitate cross cultural cooperation and inspire and assist individuals, communities
and organizations to solve problems, change behaviors and promote sound decisions in order to achieve sustainable horseshoe crab populations throughout the four species spawning range. However, in order for this section to function as intended, it needs your input.

Please find your state and/or country in both the “Conservation Regulatory Agencies” and “Conservation NGO’s” subsections.
If there are NGO groups or agencies we have missed, please let us know. It would be helpful if you could provide us with the group or agencies formal name and website address. However, any information you can provide would be most welcome.

Please send your information to: [email protected]

Thank you in advance for your help with this important project.

Glenn Gauvry
Founder & President ERDG

We invite you to "Like" us on Facebook for a journey around the world, where our friends and partners share their horseshoe crab conservation efforts, both in the field and in the classroom.

ERDG in the News

February 28, 2018 New ‘Living Fossil’ Program
New 'living fossil' program at refuge highlights role of species The J.N. "Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge is offering a new program on horseshoe crabs. Held every Tuesday at 11 a.m. in the Visitor & Education Center, the 30- minute program covers why this "living fossil" is not a "true crab" and its importance to migrating shorebirds and the medical field. Free of charge and family friendly, the program kicked off in January and will run up through April 8. "The goal of the program is to express the importance of the horseshoe crab," volunteer Patty Wettstein, the presenter for the program, said. She explained that horseshoe crabs are present year-round at the refuge and are especially visible during the new moons and full moons, which are times when the invertebrate species spawns. As arachnids, they are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crabs. Using a PowerPoint presentation and educational tools, including a life-like course one weekend at a wetlands institute in New Jersey. They brought back what they learned to jumpstart the program. "We wanted to bring it back because we knew horseshoe crabs were here," she said. One of the educational tools for the program that the refuge staff is excited to utilize is the model, developed by the Ecological Research & Development Group in Delaware. The world's first museum-grade model of a female horseshoe crab, it shows the species' exterior surfaces complete in detail. The top of the model separates from the bottom of it to reveal the internal organs - colored for easier identification - egg distribution and circulatory system, providing a view never before available. "It greatly enhances the program," Wettstein said. "It has added so much to it." The refuge was able to acquire the tool through a donation by a donor. On Jan. 30, Sharon and Elwood Leonard sat in on the horseshoe crab program. Visiting from Wisconsin, the couple explained that they had seen the species while touring the refuge. "We've seen a lot of horseshoe crabs," she said. "We thought it would be fun to learn a little bit more," Sharon Leonard added. Elwood Leonard agreed. "We've seen these things in the water," he said. "It'd be interesting to know a little more about them." His wife was intrigued by the species' role in the medical field. "The reason they take the blood," she said. Asked about the response to the program, Wettstein said visitors are excited. "A lot of visitors don't know about the medical aspect," she said. For more information, call 239-472-1100 or visit www.fws.gov/refuge/jn_ding_darling. The J.N. "Ding' Darling National Wildlife Refuge is at 1 Wildlife Drive, Sanibel.

November 2, 2017 ~ Young Voices, Horseshoe Crabs and the Arts 2017
Delaware: Our 2017 contest year received 585 entries from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mauritius and the USA. Our judges selected 36 of the most compelling artworks from each grade level that entered. As always, the task was challenging, for all forms of personal expression are, by their very nature, an honest reflection of the heart within. Since the programs inception in 1998, the Young Voices that give this program life, has grown from a few hundred, to many thousands around the world. We celebrate these young environmental stewards, whose compassion for the conservation of this remarkable species, expressed through art, has elevated and transformed our perception of this often-misunderstood marine. To see a complete list of this years selected artist visit www.horseshoecrabs.org

March 9, 2017 ~ Shorebird, Horseshoe Crab Connection Highlighted in Film
Delaware: The Delaware Shorebird Project has premiered “Feast on the Beach: The Delaware Bay Horseshoe Crab Shorebird Connection,” a film produced to raise awareness and understanding about the ecological connection between horseshoe crabs and shorebirds migrating through the Delaware Bay area, as well as the researchers who study them. ERDG’s Backyard Stewardship™ and Just flip ’em!™ programs are also featured. download the pdf.

ERDG Launches New Conservation Section
ERDG, who is dedicated to the conservation of the world’s four horseshoe crab species, launches a completely rebuilt “Conservation” section on its award winning website www.horseshoecrab.org, but it will not realize full potential without your input.

This new “Conservation” section is designed to foster communication between governmental organizations (GO's), non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and the general public, by providing information on who is doing what and where, as it pertains to horseshoe crab conservation. However, as you will notice, many areas are data deficient. Please help us complete this valuable tool by sending us [email protected] information about the GO's and NGO's in your country. Specifically, we seek the formal name of the organization, link to its website, what they do as it pertains to horseshoe crab conservation and the geographic area they cover.

You will notice we have also added a “Conservation Toolbox" subsection, which is designed to provide the NGO with mission relevant information around three key headings. Please feel free to send us articles that complement these headings.

With your help, we can bridge the information divide that often hinders our ability to engage the broadest coalition behind the conservation of this remarkable mariner.

We invite you to "Like" us on Facebook for a journey around the world, where our friends and partners share their horseshoe crab conservation efforts, both in the field and in the classroom.