Horseshoe Crabs: Saving Human Lives but Endangered

Scientists call horseshoe crabs “living fossils.” They’ve crawled the earth for 445 million years, through the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs. An adaptation in their blood has been key to their survival. It is laced with immune cells that coagulate around bacterial intruders. For half a century, the biomedical industry has used an extract from these immune cells to test for the presence of bacteria contaminants in vaccines, heart stents and other medical devices. In this way, the crabs have saved untold human lives, but the species has been put at risk from the high demand for its blood. The density of eggs laid on Delaware Bay beaches has declined by 80% since the 1990s. This in turn is threatening the populations of seabirds that depend on the eggs as food to sustain for their long migrations.

Actions have been taken to save the crabs, but more can be done. Environmentalists petitioned the federal government last year to add the crab to the Endangered Species Act list, and a decision is pending. This status will add protections. More importantly, in the late 1990s, researchers in Singapore patented a lab-made alternative to the immune cells in the crab’s blood. And Pharmacopeia, a non-profit that sets quality standards for drugs, issued guidelines deeming it safe and effective. Now it’s up to drugmakers to adopt the synthetic, which has been slow as it involves new rounds of testing.

Like the problem of plastics pollution I described in another blog on this site, the means to address this problem exist if government and business have the will to pursue them. Industry must recognize its critical role and act responsibly, and government must understand the environmental value and the merits of regulation in this case rather than rejecting all forms of regulation.

If you want to learn more, the Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition is a campaign to stop overharvesting of the horseshoe crab.

I hope you enjoyed learning about this topic. I will be delighted to receive your thoughts. You can send me a message through the contact form on this site.

Stay curious,
Ed Burrows