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Health & Fitness

Crab #164505 (Missy Weiss, GFEE)

On May 23rd at approximately 9:30 PM, five fearless, rain-soaked volunteers walked a Southold beach counting and tagging spawning horseshoe crabs.  These Group for the East End volunteers were participating in a unique citizen science project with Cornell University Cooperative Extension (CCE), collecting crucial biological information on this ‘living fossil.’  Recent decades have shown a sharp decline in horseshoe crab populations, causing concern among scientific organizations.  Consequently, CCE and New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation created a monitoring program designed to assist the regional management and conservation of the horseshoe crab.  

While previous nights showed promising numbers of horseshoe crabs spawning on this Southold beach, as many as 118, it appeared that on the evening of May 23rd the horseshoe crabs knew better than to spawn during an evening of heavy wind and rain.  If only the human volunteers knew as much as the horseshoe crab.  Only five horseshoe crabs were counted that night.  Only one daring pair was tagged. Overall, one might consider this monitoring night a complete and utter bust. However, #164505 made this night unforgettable!

 

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Just as we were completing our survey, we spotted a lone male cruising the shoreline.  He was undoubtedly searching for a gravid female horseshoe crab ready to lay her blue-green eggs.   This was going to be our third tagged horseshoe crab of the night.  Rather than placing tag #303866 onto the organism, we discovered that this horseshoe crab already had an algae-covered tag affixed to his shell.  Was this one of our previously tagged individuals returning to greet us? Or was it someone new visiting from a different location?  Scraping off the algae like a scratch off lotto ticket, we revealed the winning tag number: #164505.

 

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There has never been another group of volunteers tagging horseshoe crabs on the North Fork, so clearly this specimen was visiting -- but from where?   After submitting the tag number, sex, shell length, and location to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this horseshoe crab’s story began to unravel.  Horseshoe crab #164505 was originally tagged and released by students of Sacred Heart University on June 15, 2009 at Cedar Beach, Mt. Sinai.  If you are geographically-challenged, this location is located in Long Island SOUND! This brave horseshoe crab has made a long, treacherous journey: around Orient Point, past Shelter Island, and into the calmer waters of Peconic Bay!  If this horseshoe crab could talk, I am sure we would hear an amazing story of survival, dedication, and determination. 

 

While there are several more nights of horseshoe crab counting and tagging, an experience that can never be replaced is what occurred on that soggy, windy May night.  Tag #164505 was released back into the waters and nobody quite knows where he will end up. 

 

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