"The medical world relies on horseshoe crab blood in the production of vaccines and equipment. A synthetic is available, but companies have been slow to adopt it."
"BAY POINT, N.J. — Susan Linder was hunting for buried treasure.
Kneeling at low tide, the biologist dug up small shovelfuls of sand, scanning each scoop for tiny jewels. One yielded a cluster of jade-colored beads. Another, from a few feet away, contained a clutch the color of amethyst.
They were eggs. In a few weeks, they would hatch into horseshoe crabs, one of the most ancient and important animals in the United States. The crabs in the Delaware Bay are the stars of an annual ecological opera involving sex, binge eating and literal bloodlust.
Every spring, the crabs clickety-clack ashore for a massive orgy timed to the rise and fall of the tides, depositing millions of eggs in the sand."
Dino Grandoni and Zoeann Murphy report for the Washington Post August 16, 2025.
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