Spawn of the Horseshoe Crabs

What do thousands of horseshoe crabs do when the evening tide is high and the spring moon is new or full? A spawning so huge that people travel to view it from around the world.

The scene begins with male horseshoe crabs waiting along the water’s edge. As a female moves with the tide onto the beach, the male grabs her shell with his claws, hitching a ride on her shell. Over multiple trips over multiple nights, one female can lay up to 88,000 eggs per year.

To learn more about horseshoe crab behavior and their important role in the Bay ecosystem, tune in to this talk by Dr. Brad Stevens. The Zoom link will be in your confirmation email after you register.

Brad Stevens, Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), worked in Kodiak, Alaska, for over 20 years before coming to UMES, where he used scuba and underwater video to study fish, crabs, conch, and corals. He tells his graduate students, “Always study something you can eat.” Would that apply to the horseshoe crab?

To see horseshoe crabs in person, join us for our late evening adventure to view the mating crabs at Slaughter Beach on May 26. We’ll meet our horseshoe crab expert, Brad Stevens there to learn about their behavior close-up. Register here: https://marylandnature.wildapricot.org/event-6134514.