Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Saving Your Life


This is a familiar site in NJ in the spring. This pair of horseshoe crabs are involved in important work.  They could be saving your life.

Horseshoe crab blood is worth about $15,000 a quart. The pharmaceutical industry uses the blood to test for impurities in drugs and medical devices--everything from injectable medication to stents. So far, there is NOTHING else as reliable as the blue blood of these prehistoric creatures. No one has invented anything to replace it either. It's highly accurate.

It was when I was writing The Keeper's Promise that I went off on a tangent and discovered the worth of horseshoe crabs. The book is set in the Delaware Bay area, which has the highest population of horseshoe crabs. One of the characters in the story is a scientist conducting horseshoe crab research. I knew a bit about horseshoe crabs because I saw plenty of them in Raritan Bay when I was growing up there. But I did not have a clue about their amazing blood.

Naturally, there's really nothing in my book about the value of horseshoe crabs. I got sidetracked while I was writing. That sort of thing happens to me all the time. It isn't always easy to stay focused on the story at hand. It's a problem. Especially when I discover something truly incredible--and this thing about horseshoe crab blood is rather awe-inspiring.

So although I wasted some of my writing time in unnecessary research, I gained a new respect for the lowly horseshoe crabs.  I was reminded of it when I saw an article in the Asbury Park Press, "Rutgers lab churning out baby horseshoe crabs."

I suggest you read it, too. You can find it here:


http://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2014/09/27/rutgers-lab-churning-baby-horseshoe-crabs/16329981/

Those crabs may look grotesque, but they have been invaluable to advances in medicine. However, science keeps marching on and it brings wonderful news for horseshoe crabs. Pharmaceutical companies are now ready to commit to an alternative that doesn't harm the animals. You can read about this impressive discovery here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/05/blood-in-the-water/559229/?utm_source=twb

Maybe all the horseshoe crabs will have a party. 😊

2 comments:

MarkD60 said...

People read this post, then hunt the horseshoe crab to extinction....

Penelope Marzec said...

Mark:

The horseshoe crab has been in danger of extinction due to the fishermen who harvest it for use as bait for conch. :-(