Is the Horseshoe Crab Really Mans Best Friend?
Dog and cat lovers continually debate about which animal is man’s best friend. But ask marine education specialist Bill Hall his opinion, and he will tell you that the hands-down winner is the horseshoe crab. While few may know it, this prehistoric creature with the helmet-shaped body and spear-like tail has saved countless human lives. On Thursday, May 27, at 7 p.m. at the University of Delaware’s College of Marine Studies in Lewes, Hall will present “The Horseshoe Crab: Man’s Best Friend, or How Well Do I Know the Crab That Saved My Life?” His talk is part of the college’s Ocean Currents Lecture Series, which will be held at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus once a month through September. “Horseshoe crabs are critical to the welfare of migrating shorebirds that stop along the Delaware Bay each spring to fuel up for the flight north to Arctic nesting grounds. Some of these birds double and even triple their weight by feasting on horseshoe crab eggs,” Hall says. “Yet the horseshoe crab is just
