{"id":27536,"date":"2019-05-17T11:19:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T15:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=27536"},"modified":"2019-05-22T11:41:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T15:41:02","slug":"annual-horseshoe-crab-migration-begins-on-maryland-shores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2019\/05\/17\/annual-horseshoe-crab-migration-begins-on-maryland-shores\/","title":{"rendered":"Annual Horseshoe Crab Migration Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Living Fossils\u2019 Spawn Every May and June<\/span><\/i>
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\"PhotoOne of the world\u2019s oldest wildlife migrations is set to begin on Maryland\u2019s coastal bays and beaches. <\/span>
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For 350 million years, the May and June full and new moons have fostered a giant migration of horseshoe crabs. Coming from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, millions of these prehistoric arthropods clumsily invade Maryland\u2019s beaches for this ritualistic spawn, laying their eggs on shore.<\/span>
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The best chance for viewing these living fossils on Maryland\u2019s Atlantic Coast and along the Chesapeake Bay this year are during the high tides of a full moon, May 18 and June 17, and the new moon, June 3. Cold water temperatures may delay the early part of the spawn. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>Every year during this time, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources<\/a> conducts a horseshoe crab migration survey.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a unique place to be able to witness this event,\u201d said fisheries biologist Steven Doctor, who leads the yearly survey. \u201cThis event has significant ecological impacts not just for future generations of horseshoe crabs but for other species up and down the coast.\u201d<\/span>
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On average, one horseshoe crab can deposit nearly 20,000 eggs on the beach. Ultimately, many of the horseshoe crabs eggs never reach maturity, and instead are devoured by crustaceans, fish, and migrating shorebirds such as the red knot and sandpiper; who depend on this feast for survival.<\/span>
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Despite a horseshoe crab\u2019s armor and menacing tail, they are gentle creatures that do not bite or sting, and can only survive outside of water for a short amount of time. To help sustain the population and return back to the water, individuals who see a horseshoe crab on its back are asked to gently flip it over using two hands; and never by its telson (tail).<\/span>
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While the horseshoe crab is not consumed, its copper-based blue blood is invaluable to cutting-edge <\/span>biomedical research<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Living Fossils\u2019 Spawn Every May and June One of the world\u2019s oldest wildlife migrations is set to begin on Maryland\u2019s coastal bays and beaches. For 350 million years, the May and June full and new moons have fostered a giant migration of horseshoe crabs. Coming from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, millions of these  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11,33,13],"tags":[2995,2982,3346],"class_list":["post-27536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","category-the-bay","category-wildlife","tag-atlantic-ocean","tag-chesapeake-bay","tag-horseshoe-crab"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27536"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27556,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27536\/revisions\/27556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}