The American Horseshoe Crab: Their Blue Blood Saves Us, Now It’s Our Turn to Save Them

Session III, Virtual Room 1: BIO: From Dendrites to Dinner

Horseshoe crabs are important both economically and ecologically but their population has been in decline in Long Island Sound (LIS) for decades. Project Limulus has helped promote conservation of horseshoe crabs and their importance to the LIS ecosystem and to general human health. Every year hundreds of citizen scientists, through Project Limulus, tag and report re-sightings of horseshoe crabs on both sides of LIS. This data helps map the movement patterns of the crabs within LIS, and recently this data has been used to generate an app to visualize the movement of ~14,000 crabs. We have found that the use of a flagship species, even one that is not a charismatic megafauna, has lasting conservation value for participants. Participation in Project Limulus has resulted in local conservation efforts of estuaries and active restoration of coastal habitats around LIS.