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Crab deaths baffle experts
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HUNDREDS of horseshoe crabs — known as “living fossils” as they are among the earth’s oldest creatures — have washed ashore dead in southern Japan, confounding experts.
The crabs, known for their blue blood, are regular summer visitors to tidal flats in south and western Japan including one near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs.
Some die in the process, but this year a local conservation group noticed that the number of the precious marine arthropods that perished was unusually high, a local official told reporters yesterday.
“The conservation group spotted about five to 10 remains every day during the egg-laying period, so they started to tally them,” said Kitakyushu official Kenji Sato.
“In total the number of dead horseshoe crabs reached about 500,” Sato said.
The Asahi Shimbun daily reported that the number of dead crabs was eight times higher than normal.
Sato said local officials had sought guidance from experts but that so far a consensus on what caused the deaths has proved elusive.
Some point to “oxygen shortage due to higher sea water temperatures, or parasite infestation or a disease peculiar to horseshoe crabs” as possible causes, he added.
Japan’s environment ministry designates the species, which has survived for 200 million years, as “endangered” due to coastal habitat destruction along with Japan’s economic development.
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