www.wellsreserve.org/news/2004-05-07_horseshoe.htm

HORSESHOE CRAB TALK AT WELLS RESERVE

WELLS, MAINE - Horseshoe Crabs: Living Fossils will be presented Thursday, May 27, at 7 pm in Mather Auditorium at the Wells Reserve, 342 Laudholm Farm Road in Wells. The program is free. Please bring a mug for free organic coffee or tea. For more information, call (207) 646-1555.

Horsheshoe crabs are more closely related to spiders than true crabs, but their closest relatives have been extinct for nearly 300 million years. Even though they have been around since before the dinosaurs, they still visit the Maine coast every summer.

This living fossil has been commercially harvested for decades for use as bait in the eel and whelk pot fisheries, and horseshoe crab blood is used in the biomedical industry. Horseshoe crabs are long lived (17-19 years) and don't attain sexual maturity until 9 to 11 years of age. These life history attributes and the small population size of horseshoe crabs in Maine waters make them very vulnerable to depletion from harvesting activities. So in 2003, taking and possession of horseshoe crabs became prohibited in Maine.

Sue Schaller, principal investigator for the Maine Horseshoe Crab Surveys, will talk about these fascinating animals and will describe the annual counts of horseshoe crabs she and others do along the Maine coast each spring.

The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, with facilities at historic Laudholm Farm, is committed to investigating coastal environments and increasing understanding of their ecology.

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