20th June International Horseshoe Crab Day

International Horseshoe Crab Day is observed on 20th June, raising awareness of this "living fossil," a marine chelicerate arthropod living in shallow coastal waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms. Its existence is critical to coastal biodiversity, as horseshoe crabs lay millions of eggs on beaches to feed shorebirds, fish, and other wildlife. Besides, their large hard shell serves as microhabitat for species such as sponges, mud crabs, mussels, and snails. Yet, their population is at risk due to overharvesting, and habitat loss.

Our library doesn't have any horseshoecrab books, so there will be no display, but when I saw that there was a day to think about them I remembered reading about how High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs was an honour book in the Bank Street Cook Prize for STEM picture books in 2016. I had never heard of horseshoe crabs until I saw this book. It was on so many lists of books to read that were published in 2016, so I thought I had better find out about them and whether we had any in Australia. There are no Horseshoe crabs in Australia now. They used to live in Australia and have been found here as fossils.

High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs by Lisa Kahn Schnell and Alan Marks introduces the life cycle of the horseshoe crab, with a focus on the annual mass-spawning event at Delaware Bay. 

There is another book with the same setting, Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds by Victoria Cranston and Annie Cannon. This book presents a portrait of the Delaware Bay in the spring when a wide variety of animals, including minnows, mice, turtles, raccoons, and especially migrating shorebirds, come to feed on the billions of eggs laid by horseshoe crabs.