It’s the end of spawning season for horseshoe crabs and they were out in full force over the weekend at our spot on Cedar Beach. Usually they gather on the beach at night, but there were a few stragglers out until late morning. Horseshoe crabs are considered living fossils, having evolved over 400 million years ago. They live in Long Island waters, both in the Sound and the ocean bays. They are used by fishermen as bait and are vital to human health – their blue blood has a unique bacteria fighting ability which is used by pharmaceutical and biomedical industries for important medical research and testing (NY DEC).
I took my GoPro into the water and shot some photos and video. They are incredibly fast crawlers underwater and I had a bit of a hard time keeping up with them. I’m also still working on my GoPro skills and trying to avoid shaky shots in the rocky waves. (Eric Seals from the Detroit Free Press has great examples of underwater GoPro shooting.)
