f / ^ Herald & Lantern 4 |uly '84

Bay Beaches Rarely Cleaned ♦ Horseshoes: A Health Hazard?

By E. J. Dl'KEY J\f TOWN BANK — Seagulls sc«f<lange the dismembered bodies in the sanit jabbing the tough brown hide — testing, perhaps, whether the remains taste any better than the last time they tried them. Looking like the wreakage of landing craft from an ill-fated invasion fleet, thousands of battered, overturned or halfburied creatures litter the county bayfront. .northward from Cape May Point Millions of the prehistoric arthropods • which biologists tag as Limulus pol\'i>hemus and laymen erroneously call 1 1 1 oi seshoe fcrabs i landed again this spring along the Atlantic coast - large females followed by several males — to propagate a species that has existed for 350 million years or more. Since the last Ice Age. its females have laid several hundred eggs each along county shores, just below the high water line. Their matefc fertilize them. The rest is up . to nature. Beaches here are rich with the protein of developing life beneath and decaying life above. RESORT BEACHES are cleaned often in the spring and summer so the remains of the annual Horseshoe Crab ritual are less apparent along them Along the bayfront. however, beaches are rarely cleaned of decomposing masses, yr In Asia, their cousins are occasidhmly eaten. Years ago in New Jersey, the crabs were ground into fertilizer. Even seabirds and other scavangers pass them up for tastier meals. • Flies and other insects dine on them in droves, though. That fact, and the unsightly piles of broken bodies on neighborhood beaches brought local residents to the Lower Township Committee meeting last week They asked the local government for help. "Our problem is the beach," said John Townsend of Bay Drive "It seems to be getting worse every year with these crabs Is there no way that can be cleaned once a month?" "See. the problem is. that's all privately owned. "former Mayor Peggie Bieberbach replied. '* "What's privately owned?" Townsend asked. 4 * !■

"THE BEACHES." answered Township Solicitor Bruce Gorman. With a few minor t exceptions, the Lower's seven-mile ; bayfront is not controlled by the municipality, he and Bieberbach i explained. Anyway, the solicitor added, "it's my ! understanding that the DEP (state Department of Environmental Protection > would look askance" if the township in ' terfered with the yearly migration of Horseshoe crabs. Townsend said he wouldn't want to in- ; terfere with the crabs. But visitors are repelled by the sight and stench caused by I the dead and dying on the beaches. \ Couldn't the dead ones be removed0 he '< asked. "I think it's a health hazard." said a i spokeswoman for the group of Town Bank. Cape May Beach or Villas bayside residents. "I'm a registered nurse." she added. "Insects are festering all over and you 1 don't know whpt's biting you." . "If the board of health were to declare a health emergency, how would we go about it?" asked-'another baysider. BIEBERBACH. whose term expired July 1 when township committee was replaced by a nfunicipal council, said Township Clerk Claudia R. Kammer would contact Dan Judge, the township's liaison with the \ county Health Department, and find out what can be done. Gorman said Judge was expected back from vacation July 2. Another baysider said he had heard that the beaches used to be cleaned : "if so. why not now0" he asked. Bieberbach replied that, during her seven years in office, the township never cleaned the beaches. Boy Scouts did in years past, she added, but not lately "We have taken care of our own dead crabs," noted Rocco Romano, a member of the Cape May Beach Property Owners' Association which controls the bayfront between North Cape May -and Villas The association, he explained, has held picnics on the beach when members, arm ed with rakes, would clear it of dead crabs j for collection by township Public Works } employes Romano suggested that baysides at the meeting do the same. Incoming Mayor Robert Fothergill said township crews j

would haul away dead crabs if residents followed Romano's suggestion. • Some entrepreneur might make money by harvesting Horseshoe crabs. Bieberbach hinted. When she vacationed in

Florida a few years back, hucksters were spraying them with lacquer and selling them to tourists for $4.95-$5.95 a piece. "And the people were buying them." she chuckled.

> 1 - t . Filf phofo Limulus Polyphemus Litter Reeds Beach

Horsehoe Crabs Ancient Bluebloods

By DIXIE ANDERSON You're right! It does look prehistoric! See that shell? It looks like a coat of ar mor. Well, say hello. You're looking at Harry the Horse: Horseshoe Crab, that is. Colonists who came to America in the lab? fifteen hundreds found the Indians using Se-ekanauk • Horseshoe Crabi for food ia stew that seemed very "fishy" tasting' and as a means to catch fish. One of the Indian's more ingenious fishing methods utilized the tail of one of old Harry's ancestors They attached the hol^pw . sharp tail of the Horseshoe Crab to long poles or reeds and used this w eapon to spear fish. ' This armoredUiJeach critter is much older than the colonies though The, Horseshoe Crab improbably the oldest living species you will come across still living in its nalufal habitat. * * There are Harrys and there are Harriettas. and the Horseshoe Crab dates back over 200 million years when it evolved from the ancient sea scorpion. That old Harry you're looking at pre-dates the dinosaur. So you are seeing old age per sonified and encased in a suit of brown armor! HARRY LIVES along our Atlantic coast, and can be found from Maine to Florida, as { well as in the Gulf of Mexico. There are a couple more species of Horseshoe Crabs, and they live on the beaches of Asia and the East Indies. Otherwise, you can't find Harry anywhere else ih the world He's a funny looking character . isn't he'.' Looks mean, as though he could pinch pretty hard. Fear not. He is harmless unless you should step on his spiny, sharp back in your bare feet Harry's body is made up of two shell plates, a large one at the front and a smaller back one. The biggest crab can

sometimes reach a size ol about 12 inches across. His armor plate at the Iron! ol his body is shaped^ exactly like a horse's hoot, hqjlce the name. If you look closely, you will find two big eyes on each side of that front shell on the outer edges of the left and the right spine Now look again Where, at the front, right in the center ol the middle spine, you will find two more eyes. These are tiny and they tell dark from light The two larger eyes are the ones that "track" or look at you They are as hard as the actual shell of the crab, but if you watch closely, you will see the dark area moving as if to watch you # The second plate of armor is smaller, to the rear of Harry, and it is lollowed by his long, hard tail. The two plates are joined in a hinge-like way. and the tail enables the Horseshoe Crab to turn itself right side up if it is dumped NOW TURN Harry over. Under the large shields you will see 12 legs in pairs, jointed, and it is with these appendages that Harry walks, hunts and eats Between the legs is a narrow slit This is his mouth. Pick him up by the tail. Hear that clatter? That's his legs fighting for something to grip as they hit the side of his shell. Harry can be easily identified from Har rietta because he has pincers on his front legs. These are used during mating season. Harrietta is a seductive little wench She is usually larger than Harry. She emits a strange perfume during th§ mating season to lure Harry as her . mate She simply permeates the water around her with her scent, which, we're told, is devastating to a male Horseshoe Crab TIIE'BOYS SCURRY from every direction to find their particular Harrietta. There are always more boys than girls in

the Horseshoe Crab community, so often the female garners more than one mate lor her prospective family When Hary is lured to Harrietta b\ her perfune. ha attaches his two front pincers to the large1 saw teeth on each side ol her tail. Now he's just along for the ride' Har rietta drags him along behind her until she lays her eggs Often, because of the over population ot males, another and even another, and even more male Horseshoe Crabs, may attach themselves to Harrietta with their pincers Then as she walks, she carries her own Horseshoe train, chugging along to the spot where the eggs will be laid Harrietta takes her suitors to the very topmost edge of high tide, and here with the scoop of her front plate, and her legs, she digs a hole in the sand She lays her eggs, and then Harry does his stuff, fer tilizing them Nest after nest is dug at the high water's edge, until all of the eggs are deposited. Many of these eggs are eaten by fish in tidewater pools, birds and other sea animals, but out of the thousands of fertilized eggs, some will survive to develop in the wet sand. IN Jl'ST A matter of days, the tough eggs will crack open and what is hatched is another egg-like thing covered with a cellophane-type covering that lets one see the development of the baby Horseshoe Crab. Through this "window the tiny crab will be seen to shed its skin twice before it hatches for a second time and burrows into the wet sand to live, grow and shed its skin five more times, doubling its weight at the end of its first year. Now it will measure just one inch across. Two more years pass, and the crab grows a folded new skin beneath its outer ' shell When it becomes bigger, the cover

will break open and the tolded new skin will smooth out. harden and become a new armored suit for the baby crab. These changes are called mollings During these two years four more moltings will have occurred. At the beginning of its third year, the baby is three inches across and at this point will leave the wet sand to go into deeper water where it will continue to grow, molting only once a year until he is 11 years old. Harry and Harrietta's babies won't \ come back to our beaches until they are full grown and mature, measuring about ten inches across. THE BLOOD of the Horseshoe Crab seems to testify to its many years of life if one is to believe the social register, for the Horseshoe's life-giving substance, blood, is actually blue in color! Our friend Harry holds many secrets that are now being investigated by scientists. The ability of the Horseshoe Crab to determine the time of day or night with his hard-crusted eyes (which, by the way are replaced with each molting), and the fact that bacteria never is able to invade his body are only two of the mysteries being looked into. Old Harry here may someday be a key to many medical questions that will revolutionize our control of certain diseases. Horseshoe Crabs aren't too popular with fishermen because they eat sea worms and other natural bait close to the shoreline. They take food from the oyster and clam beds as well. Nevertheless, we can watch and listen in awe as we learn about old Harry and his pals who swim in the ocean's waters on their backs. They give a lesson in prehistory that fits into the pattern of our dafly seashore lives. Say hello to Harry!