Welcome to the Keyport Green Team's "Explore the Bayshore" Project

click here to see Borough Calendar

           Over the coming months, we'll be introducing you to our closest neighbors -- the animals that live in Raritan Bay.  And, to start off, we'd like to invite you to make the acquaintance of an animal that is as close to unique as you are likely to find anywhere -- the Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus.  It is monotypic -- i.e., there is only one species in the genus.  It is the only horseshoe crab found in the western hemisphere, and Raritan Bay is one of its prime habitats.  Often described as a living fossil, it has been around virtually unchanged for the last 250 million years.  Unfortunately, it may not be around much longer, as its conservation status is verging on threatened in some places and endangered in others.  

           Check out this spot by the middle of next week to find out why this is, why you should care and what you can do about it, and for the real skinny, be sure to come to Borough Hall at 6:30 p.m. on February 28 for a presentation on these creatures courtesy of Save Coastal Wildlife.  Be there or be square!

What Can You Do?

Now that you know a little about how badly we need horseshoe crabs, and how dire their situation is, surely you want to help.  You can start out by declining to make things worse.

New Jersey law prohibits the taking of horseshoe crabs, but other states do not.  So, in  addition to observing the law here, do not use horseshoe crabs for bait when you are out of state. If you see a horseshoe crab on its back, pick it up by the edges of its shell with your fingers away from the hinge, turn it over, and put it down where you found it with its telson straight.

As a lone individual, there is not much more you can do.  Acting as part of an organization , however, is another matter. The Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition, hscrabrecovery.org, The American Littoral Society, littoralsociety.org, and Save Coastal Wildlife, savecoastalwildlife.org, all advocate specifically for horseshoe crabs and some sponsor hands-on surveys, counts and tagging activities.

When we point out that humans are responsible for the decline in horseshoe crab populations, the harm results not only directly through overharvesting, but also indirectly through the effects of climate change.  Rising sea levels and acidification through carbonization of the oceans are affecting the beaches where horseshoe crabs return to spawn each year.  Thus, lending your support to organizations that battle climate change as well as those specifically concerned with horseshoe crabs can help protect these creatures and the ecosystems (including ours) that depend on them.

 Keep learning. These few posts over the last three weeks have given you a nodding acquaintance with one of the iconic animals of the Bayshore ecosystem, but there is so much more to discover.  The LMxAC Library System, to which the Keyport Public Library belongs, has many books and materials in all formats for all ages and levels of expertise.

And we're right here! The Keyport Green Team would love to add you as a member.  If you live in Keyport, go to the volunteer page on the Borough website and fill in the application.  If you do not live in Keyport, you can still attend our meetings (usually 6:00 p.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month, but check the Borough calendar for changes) and lend a hand to any of our projects, for which we would be eternally grateful.

Be sure to attend our Explore the Bayshore programs.  The first will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall.  Check back here next month for the rest.

Can't wait to see you there!

 Why Else?

Next to the safety of medical devices, the plight of the endangered piping plover, while concerning, may not seem terribly significant, but isolating the horseshoe crab's effect on individual shorebirds is misleading.  In fact, the horseshoe crab not only is vital to the survival of this shorebird, but is a keystone species.  Without it, the entire ecosystem to which it belongs would collapse.  

Just as the horseshoe crab can eat just about anything, vast numbers of shorebirds, including the red knot, the ruddy turnstone, the sanderling and the willet, as well as other plovers, depend, in turn, directly on the horseshoe crab for food. These Arctic breeders have very low fat stores by the time they stop off in New Jersey and Delaware to replenish their energy to coincide with the horseshoe crab breeding season in May and June.  As the horseshoe crabs come ashore to lay their eggs, the birds gobble up those eggs that are uncovered by wave action.  Without them, those shorebirds would not be able to arrive at their breeding grounds.  

Adult horseshoe crabs are prey for sea turtles, horse conches and sharks.  Loss of the adults would have a catastrophic impact on the marine environment, as well.

So, what can we do to help? Check out this page early next week to find out.  Start out by getting to know these unsung heroes of nature and the interface between land and sea -- that is, the Bayshore -- at the kickoff event of your Green Team's Explore the Bayshore Project on Wednesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall.  Can't wait to see you there.

Why Do We Need Them?

Well into the 20th century, people, including children, were often dying from bacterial infections.  Then, along came antibiotics, which kill bacteria and thereby save lives.  But, some bacteria are more dangerous dead than they are alive.  There are bacteria that have poisons as part of their cell membranes -- when the bacteria die, these poisons, called endotoxins, are released, and they are everywhere in the environment.  Thus, they can get into medicines and into medical devices that could kill the people to whom they are given instead of curing them.  

How is this prevented? Remember the hemolymph that protects horseshoe crabs from bacteria? It protects them from endotoxins as well.  Scientists remove a small portion of horseshoe crab "blood," separate out certain cells and use them to test injectable medicines and implantable devices.  Pharmaceutical companies do this approximately seventy million times a year, and nothing else works as well.  Without horseshoe crabs, going to the doctor could be more dangerous than getting sick in the first place.

You may think that technology could solve this problem by coming up with a way to clone the cells at scale or even generate an artificial alternative.  Even if that is possible, that is not the only reason we need horseshoe crabs.  Check back later in the week and we'll explain why.  And, don't forget to mark your calendar for next Wednesday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Borough Hall.

 What Are They Exactly?

                    Poison ivy is not ivy, poison oak is not oak and horseshoe crabs are not crabs.  In fact, they are a lot closer to spiders and scorpions, but are much friendlier (By much friendlier, we mean not venomous, as all spiders and scorpions are).  The species name, polyphemus, the name of the Cyclops in Homer's Odyssey, was applied because the horseshoe crab was thought to have only one eye.  In fact, it has ten, including a pair of compound eyes on its front shell, each with over one thousand clusters of visual cells, four more eyes on the sides of its shell, one in the center in the front, all of which detect light, including ultraviolet light to help them tell the phases of the moon, as well as two more on the underside of its prosoma (the front part of the animal) near its mouth.  Its compound eyes are chemically stimulated at night to allow it to see in the dark and to recognize other horseshoe crabs, and a group of  photoreceptors on its telson -- its spike-like tail -- help it tell day from night.

                     Like spiders and scorpions, the horseshoe crab has eight legs, but, if you look at the underside, it appears to have ten.That is because the front limbs are actually chelicerae, which are used to put food in its mouth.  The two legs in the back are called pusher legs and are used to walk along the bay or ocean floor. When horseshoe crabs swim, they swim upside down.

                     If you're wondering how horseshoe crabs have remained such an oddity until now, check back with us at the end of the week, and we'll tell you.  And, don't forget to get the full story on February 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Borough Hall.  See you then!

 Why Now?

              Why have horseshoe crabs failed to evolve over the last 250 million years?  The short answer is that they haven't needed to.  They are well protected by their armor-like front shell, so their tender body parts are beyond the reach of would-be marine predators.  While that structure makes them inflexible, so they can't readily roll over, their long, hard, pointed telsons can act as levers, in case they find themselves flipped onto their backs.  (The telsons also function as  spoons.)  

              In addition, horseshoe crabs aren't fussy.  They can live in all kinds of marine habitats -- shallow or deep, warm or cold -- and can eat almost anything they can scavenge. Of course, contact with all that detritus can expose them to all kinds of bacteria, but they are well protected by their hemolymph -- what passes for blood.  In the Mid-Atlantic region, adult horseshoe crabs have only one  predator; however, that predator is the most successful predator of any species of all time -- Homo sapiens.

            Watch this site early next week and we'll tell you why human beings all of a sudden find adult horseshoe crabs to be such a hot commodity.  And, don't forget our hot date at Borough Hall on February 28 at 6:30 to find out more about these fascinating creatures.  See you there!