Blue blood from horseshoe crabs is needed for medicine, but a declining bird relies on crabs to eat
The biomedical industry is adopting new standards to protect a primordial sea animal that is a linchpin of the production of vital medicines
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The horseshoe crab has been scuttling in the ocean and tidal pools for more than 400 million years, playing a vital role in the East Coast ecosystem along with being a prized item for fishing bait and medical research.
Its blue blood is harvested for medical researchers and used by drug and medical device makers to test for dangerous impurities in vaccines, prosthetics and intravenous drugs. The crabs are used by fishing crews as bait to catch eels and sea snails. And their eggs are a critical food for a declining subspecies of bird called the red knot – a rust-colored, migratory shorebird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The competing interests have set up a clash among researchers, fishing crews and environmentalists over new protections designed to keep more of the crabs in the environment. The animals are drained of some of their blood and returned to the shore, but many die from the bleeding. And a drive to create synthetic alternatives has yet to succeed in phasing out the crabs from use.
Recent revisions to guidelines for handling the animals should keep more alive through the process, regulators said. The animals — not really true crabs but rather more closely related to land-dwelling invertebrates such as spiders and scorpions — are declining in some of their East Coast range.
