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Spooky_Noodle_ OP t1_j1ossy0 wrote

Reply to comment by mcrbiddy in A frozen horseshoe crab at the beach by Spooky_Noodle_

This is very true these guys are ancient! Outlived the dinosaurs and maybe they'll outlive us too.

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Saoirsenobas t1_j1pgegy wrote

Not if we continue to harvest them for their blood unfortunately

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pusillanimouslist t1_j1pp3kt wrote

Not sure who downvoted you, but you’re half right. We do harvest them for blood for medical purposes, but they’re supposed to return them and the expected fatality rate is pretty low, and the total numbers taken for blood is way less than those taken for bait and food.

That being said, the process of collecting their blood is in decline. There are synthetic alternatives that are beginning to replace the crab blood route.

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Saoirsenobas t1_j1q9pdr wrote

I worked in a lab researching this a few years ago.. our studies found fatalaty rates of bleeding and transport around 33% at the time. Also the amount of blood you can collect is proportional to their size so companies were deliberately collecting females which are larger, causing extremely skewed sex ratios in the surviving wild populations (10 males: 1female). Also the synthetic substitutes are nowhere near commercially viable but the research is promising.

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