07/02/02

Horseshoe crab named Delaware’s official marine animal

By MOLLY MURRAY, Sussex Bureau reporter

Delaware has its state bug, the lady beetle; its official fish, the sea trout; and its own bird, the blue hen chicken. Read more »

05/27/02

Decrease in Crabs Raises Concerns

By JAMES GORMAN

For hundreds of millions of years, horseshoe crabs have spawned with relatively little fanfare. This spring, however, as they have hauled themselves up on the beaches of Delaware Bay, they have been counted, collected for bait, observed, and argued over. Read more »

06/23/02

Delaware: A Delaware man’s work to preserve horseshoe crabs, a species so ancient it’s called a “living fossil;” a conch fisherman’s help in the cause; and medical research’s need for horseshoe crabs’ blue blood. In late spring each year, beaches along the Atlantic coast play host to some of the strangest-looking creatures in the world: horseshoe crabs, swimming in from deeper waters for their annual spawning. Despite their skewer-like tails and alarming-looking claws, horseshoe crabs are harmless and their eggs are vital food for millions of shorebirds flying north for the summer.

05/03/02

The Struggle To Save a ‘Living Fossil’

Delaware: During the next few weeks, beaches on America’s Atlantic coast will play host to some of the strangest-looking creatures in the world, horseshoe crabs, which are swimming in from deeper waters for their annual spawning. Despite their skewer-like tails and alarming-looking claws,horseshoe crabs are harmless and their eggs are vital food for millions of shorebirds flying north for the summer. Carolyn Weaver visited the mid-Atlantic coast of Delaware to find out more about the animals that have been called “living fossils.” Download the pdf.

02/25/02

NOAA Fisheries Awards $10,000 Grant to Continue Horseshoe Crab Conservation

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service has awarded a $10,000 grant to Ecological Research and Development Group, a Delaware-based horseshoe crab conservation organization. The conservation group will use the funds to continue saving thousands of horseshoe crabs by providing a no-cost way for mid-Atlantic conch and whelk fishermen to use fewer of the prehistoric anthropods as bait. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department. Read more »