Annual Horseshoe Crab Festival is a Hit

Under a beautiful blue sky, more than 200 people came to the shoreline of Sunset Cove at the Jamaica Bay Refuge last Sunday, May 18, to witness the annual mating ritual of the ancient horseshoe crab.

During the new and full moons of May and early June, hundreds of scary looking “crabs” crawl ashore at the high tide to mate and lay millions of eggs along the shoreline. “They are totally harmless,” said Don Riepe of the American Littoral Society, “and very important to the bay’s ecology. The crab-like animal’s eggs provide a valuable food resource for the thousands of shorebirds migrating north at this time, especially the federally endangered red knot.  Also, the crab’s copper-based, bluish blood contains a clotting factor that is used to detect pathogens in human blood serum.”

The event was sponsored and attended by many groups including the National Park Service, NYC Park Rangers, Jamaica Bay – Rockaway Parks Conservancy, the NYC Plover Project, and the American Littoral Society.