OCEAN CITY – University researchers continue to work in the canal system off 94th Street as part of a study on horseshoe crabs.
This summer, researchers with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) have been working on a pilot study to identify the reasoning behind horseshoe crab deaths in the canals near 94th Street. As monitoring continue, they are reminding residents and visitors to remain vigilant of any dead crabs found along the bayside.
“It’s a matter of people keeping their eyes open, and if they see dead crabs to report them,” said Dr. Eric May, professor of fish biology and pathology for the department of natural sciences.
In 2021, after hundreds of dead horseshoe crabs washed up in bayside canals near 94th Street, the Maryland Coastal Bays Program sought help from UMES to identify the cause. Since that time, university researchers have been working to understand why so many horseshoe crabs have died in that location.
“We were asked by the Maryland Coastal Bays Program to take a look at it and see what we could come up with …,” May said. “We started some projects last year and continue projects this year to see why the crabs die off.”
Each week this summer, researchers and interns with the UMES Research Experience for Undergraduates in Marine and Estuary Sciences program will be visiting the canals near 94th Street.
Dr. Maggie Sexton, deputy director of the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center at UMES, said efforts are now underway to tag horseshoe crabs with passive integrated transponders, the same technology used to microchip cats and dogs.
“We have tagged 60 crabs in the last two boat slips off 94th Street,” she said. “We were so surprised to see how many there were.”
Sexton said researchers will use this transponder technology to determine how crabs enter and exit the canals. She said their working theory is that horseshoe crabs are coming into the canals in search of spawning habitats but die once they are in the canals.
“The question is how do dead crabs end up in the canal …,” she said. “A lot think that the crabs are drifting in already dead. We don’t buy that. We believe they are coming in alive on purpose.”
In addition to tagging horseshoe crabs, UMES researchers have also built a nesting platform covered with sand inside one of the canals. Sexton said they will be looking for eggs throughout the summer.
“We’ve started another line of inquiry. If we give the crabs some spawning habitat, will they spawn and leave?” she said. “We can tell you the crabs do spawn there, and they exhibit some nesting behaviors.”
UMES officials note that the public can also aid in their research. They ask residents and visitors to report any dead horseshoe crabs by visiting their webpage, sites.google.com/umes.edu/monitoringhorseshoecrabs-oc/home, and filling out the digital form.
“Filling out that form gives us information,” May said. “That’s one of the biggest problems we have. There is no center point of information for people who live in the area.”
Officials also wanted the public to be aware that researchers will be in the canals weekly throughout the summer.
“People need to know what’s going on,” May said, “and why we have been out there for two years.”
For more information on the study, or to view the team’s findings from 2021 and 2022, visit the project webpage.
