News Archives
09/03/01
Horseshoe Crabs and NASA
The horseshoe crab’s highly developed sensitivity to endotoxins, has been seized upon by another industry that worries about bacteria: NASA. NASA’s Planetary Protection Program has discovered the value of the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test in maintaining a sterile environment for its Mars missions. Read more »
06/08/01
Counting Crabs
Until recently, the horseshoe crab was considered to be little more than a pest. When they come ashore to spawn, many die, rot and ruin beaches. The Bay of the Delaware River has the greatest concentration of horseshoes in the world. Five years ago, the spawning dropped suddenly. States all along the Atlantic coast moved swiftly to protect the horseshoe, including limiting its catch. But scientists cannot say if enough has been done to help it recover because there is so little information about the horseshoe crab. Bruce Schimmel joined one team getting ready to track and count horseshoes as they are about to come ashore and spawn at Prime Hook Beach in Delaware.
09/05/01
horseshoecrab.org Wins Award
On September 5th, 2001, the Ecological Research & Development Group Inc. received the Exploratorium’s “Ten Cool Sites Award” for September 2001 for educational excellence.
07/30/01
ERDG completes Phase II of its bait bag initiative
Building on last year’s success in reducing Virginia’s annual harvest of horseshoe crabs for bait in the conch fishery by over 355,000 animals. ERDG formed a partnership with Kent-Sussex Industries of Delaware to manufacture and distribute over 6,000 bait bags free of charge, to conch fishermen in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Funding from the National Marine Fisheries Service, State agencies and others made this possible. Read more »
04/13/01
Delaware’s Governor Ruth Ann Minner Says: “ERDG Should be Commended”
Delaware: ERDG has sought and obtained funding for an initiative to greatly reduce the number of horseshoe crabs used as conch and eel bait. One of, if not the most, critical reasons for the decline in the horseshoe crab population are over harvesting by fishermen. Governor Ruth Ann Minner stated, “ERDG is to be commended for working on solutions to this issue.” download the pdf.