They’ve been around for at least 440 million years but now face a serious decline due to bad fishing habits, loss of habitat, and a drive to use their blood for medical treatments.
They swim upside down at a 45-degree angle and feed off mollusks and worms at the bottom of the ocean floor. And their eggs are a delicacy of the red knots.
Horseshoe crabs aren’t really crabs at all, but part of a genus related to spiders. Their eggs feed the red knots that stop at the Delaware Bay on their 9,000-mile trek to their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundra. After Sandy devastated the Bayshore, groups like the American Littoral Society came in with programs to help restore essential habitat.
One has to wonder how the first red knot found the first horseshoe crab egg, but if you look at the flock of red knots burrowing for those eggs, you’ll realize the word got around. After the red knots have laid their own eggs and gotten their little ones to fly, they’ll be back in late September on their way to South America where the winters are warm. It’s up to us to protect this part of God’s creation.
Prayer for the Day
Awe-inspiring God, we sing of the wonder of your creation,
Marveling in its infinite variety we praise your holy name;
But even as your glory resounds in our ears, we become despairing.
Trying to free ourselves of the trivial things that take over our lives.
Reveal your light through the variety of life we see about us
Making them and us instruments of your infinity.
In the name of the One who an instrument to us,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
For a while after Sandy, we were the only ones that came in with money to do something right and help restore the beaches. We felt the Delaware Bayshore was a place that was important for a lot of reasons and important enough to invest in.
- Tim Dillingham, American Littoral Society
On the bayshore, the focus is on restoring wildlife habitat — not beaches where humans swim. The Delaware Bay is not the tourism juggernaut that the Jersey Shore is.
- Andrew Lewis, journalist
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength’
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of God’s name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, over mighty waves.
The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
Psalm 29: 1-4