NORTH BEACH, Md. — A group of volunteers in North Beach, Maryland is rescuing thousands of horseshoe crabs that become trapped in the shorefront riprap rock installed to protect the town.
The volunteers, who wade in murky water and dig through sand on hands-and-knees, draw the attention of curious boardwalk visitors who quickly learn how important to the environment the crabs are and why they are worth saving.
The crabs are harvested for their blood, which is used in the bio-medical industry to guarantee product safety. Conservation groups list the global horseshoe crab population as vulnerable, though in the mid-Atlantic states regulators say the situation is stable.
The horseshoe crabs are regarded as "living fossils," because they have changed little in more than 400 million years on Earth. The species has survived 13 global mass extinctions, including the disappearance of dinosaurs.
But in North Beach, the horseshoe crabs die by the thousands in the human-made riprap of rock that protects the boardwalk and town. The rock is laid over a sand beach that horseshoe crabs have spawned on for millennia.
One of the rescuers, Cathy Foutz, explained how the rescuing started when the stench of rotting crabs got her attention on a visit to the boardwalk in 2023.
“My husband and I went for a walk one day and the smell was unbelievable," she said. "We were so horrified that we just started coming down every day to check and save any live ones that we could find. We had 895 rescues last year."
Foutz went on to explain the impact of the crabs getting trapped in the rock.
"It's just collateral damage for the horseshoe crab population," she said. "Almost 100% will die in the rock.”
Foutz said she and other volunteers noticed the crab spawn began early this season due to warm water temperatures. She believes higher tides and increased incidence of tidal flooding is the result of climate change that also threatens the crabs.
The volunteers move crabs in garden baskets and carts down the boardwalk to a sandy safe zone for spawning to release them. Bystanders marvel and take photos.
Foutz said the group, which is organized on Facebook and open to additional supporters, has performed more than 2,000 rescues in 2024 so far. The volunteers are hopeful that any shoreline improvements in North Beach will be done with protecting horseshoe crab spawning habitats in the future.
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