ENVIRONMENT
SUSANNE MASTERS
Horseshoe crabs
In a meeting planning experimental design to evaluate influences on wildlife trade, I remembered seeing Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) beached on Cape Cod. This can happen after spawning. Less visibly, they are captured and taken to laboratories where their blood is extracted for medicinal use. 15 poer cent do not survive the process. Those that don’t die are returned to the sea but survival rates post release are not known. If you’ve had a vaccination or medical procedure that required sterile equipment the blood of horseshoe crabs was used to detect bacterial contamination, even though a synthetic substitute is available. So, I included horseshoe crabs in our change point analysis of patent applications. We found that while technological innovation has offered a means to stop using horseshoe crab blood, national legislation is needed to implement use of the synthetic alternative and reduce this harmful wildlife trade.