Horseshoe Crabs, Living Fossils of the Sea, Draw Endangered Species Petition 

Atlantic Horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and lay their eggs on Pickering Beach, a national horseshoe crab sanctuary near Little Creek, Delaware, May 20, 2008. (Reuters)
Atlantic Horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and lay their eggs on Pickering Beach, a national horseshoe crab sanctuary near Little Creek, Delaware, May 20, 2008. (Reuters)
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Horseshoe Crabs, Living Fossils of the Sea, Draw Endangered Species Petition 

Atlantic Horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and lay their eggs on Pickering Beach, a national horseshoe crab sanctuary near Little Creek, Delaware, May 20, 2008. (Reuters)
Atlantic Horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn and lay their eggs on Pickering Beach, a national horseshoe crab sanctuary near Little Creek, Delaware, May 20, 2008. (Reuters)

Environmental groups on Monday petitioned the US government seeking endangered species protection for the American horseshoe crab, a "living fossil" under threat from commercial harvests for bait and biomedical use as well as from habitat loss and climate change.

These spine-tailed sea creatures named for the shape of their body shells have been crawling ashore since long before the age of dinosaurs, and in modern times were a familiar sight to summer beachgoers along the US mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.

But horseshoe crab populations have crashed in recent decades, with spawning numbers down two-thirds from 1990 in the Delaware Bay estuary that was once their biggest stronghold, according to conservation groups. Research also shows their egg densities falling more than 80% in the past four decades.

Those trends are tied to stress on other marine species that feed on their larvae and eggs, including the rufa red knot, a migratory shorebird whose own 2014 threatened-species listing cited horseshoe crab harvests as a contributing factor.

Classified not as true crabs but as marine arthropods most closely related to spiders and scorpions, horseshoe crabs are among the oldest living creatures on Earth, with fossils of their ancestors dating back some 450 million years.

Despite their primitive appearance, horseshoe crabs are harmless to people, for whom encounters were once common along shorelines where the animals congregated each spring to lay million eggs.

Now, after surviving several mass-extinction events through the ages, including an asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed off dinosaurs, the lowly horseshoe crab is facing its own demise from a combination of human activities.

"We're wiping out one of the world's oldest and toughest creatures," said Will Harlan, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of 23 groups petitioning the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the endangered species declaration.

Such a listing would generally make it unlawful to harm or kill a horseshoe crab without a special permit. The petition also seeks designation of "critical habitat" to be protected, especially during spawning season.

NOAA Fisheries spokesperson said the agency would review the petition, but declined further comment.

The petition cites numerous threats to the American horseshoe crab, one of four living species of the animal, stemming from human activities.

Pharmaceutical companies reap horseshoe crabs in large numbers - nearly 1 million in 2022 - for their blue-colored blood, which contains a clotting agent used to test drugs and medical devices for bacterial endotoxins, the petition said.

Regulations allow the biomedical industry to extract only a portion of a horseshoe crab's blood and then release it alive in the area it was collected, though 10-15% of harvested animals die during this process, NOAA says on its website.

Harlan said non-industry research shows about 30% of horseshoe crabs collected for blood extraction die in the process. He added that synthetic alternatives are widely used in Europe, but US companies have been slow to adopt them.

Over-harvesting of horseshoe crabs as bait for commercial whelk and eel fisheries has further decimated their numbers, with no sign of recovery even after quotas were imposed, according to the petition.

The creatures also face growing habitat loss from oceanfront development, dredging, pollution, coastal erosion and sea-level rise linked to global warming from increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Mass die-offs have been observed in the past three years, with NOAA in 2023 ranking the horseshoe crab's overall vulnerability to climate change as "very high," the petition said.



Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
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Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.
This scene has inspired millions of fridge magnets, posters, and souvenirs -- and now the queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can take more than 20 minutes, said AFP.
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.
"We need to set limits if we don't want to sink under overtourism," Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos told AFP.
"There must not be a single extra bed... whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals."
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.
For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island's famous sunset can be a cash cow.
One company advertised more than 50 "flying dresses", which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros ($401), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to "feel like a Greek goddess" or spruce up selfies.
'Respect Oia'
But elsewhere in Oia's narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.
"RESPECT... It's your holiday... but it's our home," read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.
Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini's landscape is "unique", the mayor said, and "should not be harmed by new infrastructure".
Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.
At the edge of the cliff, a myriad of swimming pools and jacuzzis highlight Santorini is also a pricey destination.
In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.
Cruise ships "do a lot of harm to the island", said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years.
"When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera," she said.
Cruise ship limits
In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece's most popular islands.
"I think we'll do it next year," he told Bloomberg, noting that Santorini and tourist magnet Mykonos "are clearly suffering".
"There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped," said the pro-business conservative leader, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
In an AFP interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: "We must set quotas because it's impossible for an island such as Santorini... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time."
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year.
But not all local operators agree.
Antonis Pagonis, head of Santorini's hoteliers association, believes better visitor flow management is part of the solution.
"It is not possible to have (on) a Monday, for example, 20 to 25,000 guests from the cruise ships, and the next day zero," he said.
Pagonis also argued that most of the congestion only affects parts of the island like the capital, Fira.
In the south of the island, the volcanic sand beaches are less crowded, even though it is high season in July.
'I'm in Türkiye
The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behavior.
"I listened (to) people making a FaceTime call with the family, saying 'I'm in Türkiye," smiled tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras.
"They think that the church over there is a mosque because yesterday they were in Türkiye."
The veteran guide said the average tourist coming to the island has changed.
"Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit," he said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.