8 ms·

500 dead horseshoe crabs have washed up in Japan

40 points by wuschel 10y ago

mmanfrin 10y ago
"Mysteriously". My first thought (and indeed the end half of the article) points potential blame at the 'harvesting' of blood. Horseshoe crabs are captured, have some blood drained, and then are released. Maybe some group is getting a little to zealous with the harvest.
- giarc 10y ago
  >Those harvesting this 'blue blood' say they're not killing the crabs to obtain it, but reports have shown that even if crabs that are returned to the ocean afterwards, they tend to die earlier than those that had been left alone. Looks like it might not be as harmless as they thought.
  - p42 10y ago
    Considering that they are thrown back into the ocean without parts of their immune system, I find it a miracle that they survive at all. The "harvest" looks pretty gruesome to me: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-blood-harvest/284078/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-bl...
    - arcticfox 10y ago
      Holy cow
    - anexprogrammer 10y ago
      "The industry says that not that many of the animals die. Between 10 and 30 percent of the bled animals, according to varying estimates, actually die" Doesn't really fit my view of not that many. We seem determined to ruin everything we go near.
- stevegeary 10y ago
  I've no clue what horseshoe crab harvest stats are like for asia (Tachypleus), but for the U.S. it's somewhere like several hundred thousand crabs (Limulus) bled each year!
giarc 10y ago
>But now after surviving the last five mass extinctions on Earth, their numbers are suddenly starting to dwindle. We are fucking things up so badly. Are we actually on track to fix the damage from climate change? Are we doing enough? Are people willing to live with what is really needed to stop climate change? This thing survived 5 mass extinctions, are humans what was really needed to kill it off?
- wuschel 10y ago
  "Are we doing enough?" This question is spot on. We have this planet, our habitat, in our hands. Overexploition of natural recources can bring our ecosystem in dire straits, and us with it. We can loose so much. About time to use technology to change this. And about time to change out behaviour en masse.
  - mynewtb 10y ago
    Meh, gotta rewrite our frontend in Angular 2 to impress YC and cash out on our IoT razor blade disposal community.
    - wuschel 10y ago
      I take that as bleeding edge sarcasm :^) There are many startup endeavours that aim to use tech for the better of our ecosystem e.g. all the startups affiliated with the New Harvest Community (http://new-harvest.org http://new-harvest.org).
      - beamatronic 10y ago
        >> blade disposal >> bleeding edge
  - sevenless 10y ago
    It feels inevitable we're going to end up spraying sulfate into the air to keep cool, because that's by far the cheapest solution to global warming. It also doesn't fix any of the fundamental problems. Maybe a sign of (rather unintelligent) industrialized life on other planets would be sulfate aerosol spectra in the atmosphere too consistent to be explained by vulcanism...
stevegeary 10y ago
Say goodbye to the blood harvest, an Irish startup are making a biosynthetic replacement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Wg9nqdlZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Wg9nqdlZU http://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation-awards-sothic-bioscience-could-save-horseshoe-crab-from-extinction-1.2739195 http://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation-awards-sothic-... (disclaimer: I work for Sothic)
- bpicolo 10y ago
  I've been wondering when this would happen, such an obvious thing to target. Cool! Good on the founders, though I see competition in their future.
- loeg 10y ago
  What is the blood harvest and what does Sothic replace? I'm confused.
  - sehr 10y ago
    Few people know it but the horseshoe crab is the unsung hero when it comes to medical devices and pharmaceutical products. The blood of the crab has unique properties that make it ideal for giving an absolute guarantee that an injectable product or implantable medical device absolutely sterile.
- arcticfox 10y ago
  Great news if it works and it's a cost effective replacement!
nosuchthing 10y ago
Aside from the apocalyptic theme from the website maintainer, this is quiet a comprehensive list of mass animal die offs that have been reported since 2011, when these reports begin skyrocketing. http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/animal-deaths-birds-fish-end-times.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/animal-deaths-birds-fish-e... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2015.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2015.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2014.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2014.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2013.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2013.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2012.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2012.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2011.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2011.ht...
petre 10y ago
And of course gloabal warming is to blame.

40 points by wuschel 10y ago

"Mysteriously". My first thought (and indeed the end half of the article) points potential blame at the 'harvesting' of blood. Horseshoe crabs are captured, have some blood drained, and then are released. Maybe some group is getting a little to zealous with the harvest.

giarc 10y ago
>Those harvesting this 'blue blood' say they're not killing the crabs to obtain it, but reports have shown that even if crabs that are returned to the ocean afterwards, they tend to die earlier than those that had been left alone. Looks like it might not be as harmless as they thought.
- p42 10y ago
  Considering that they are thrown back into the ocean without parts of their immune system, I find it a miracle that they survive at all. The "harvest" looks pretty gruesome to me: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-blood-harvest/284078/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-bl...
  - arcticfox 10y ago
    Holy cow
  - anexprogrammer 10y ago
    "The industry says that not that many of the animals die. Between 10 and 30 percent of the bled animals, according to varying estimates, actually die" Doesn't really fit my view of not that many. We seem determined to ruin everything we go near.
stevegeary 10y ago
I've no clue what horseshoe crab harvest stats are like for asia (Tachypleus), but for the U.S. it's somewhere like several hundred thousand crabs (Limulus) bled each year!

giarc 10y ago

>But now after surviving the last five mass extinctions on Earth, their numbers are suddenly starting to dwindle. We are fucking things up so badly. Are we actually on track to fix the damage from climate change? Are we doing enough? Are people willing to live with what is really needed to stop climate change? This thing survived 5 mass extinctions, are humans what was really needed to kill it off?

wuschel 10y ago
"Are we doing enough?" This question is spot on. We have this planet, our habitat, in our hands. Overexploition of natural recources can bring our ecosystem in dire straits, and us with it. We can loose so much. About time to use technology to change this. And about time to change out behaviour en masse.
- mynewtb 10y ago
  Meh, gotta rewrite our frontend in Angular 2 to impress YC and cash out on our IoT razor blade disposal community.
  - wuschel 10y ago
    I take that as bleeding edge sarcasm :^) There are many startup endeavours that aim to use tech for the better of our ecosystem e.g. all the startups affiliated with the New Harvest Community (http://new-harvest.org http://new-harvest.org).
    - beamatronic 10y ago
      >> blade disposal >> bleeding edge
- sevenless 10y ago
  It feels inevitable we're going to end up spraying sulfate into the air to keep cool, because that's by far the cheapest solution to global warming. It also doesn't fix any of the fundamental problems. Maybe a sign of (rather unintelligent) industrialized life on other planets would be sulfate aerosol spectra in the atmosphere too consistent to be explained by vulcanism...

stevegeary 10y ago

Say goodbye to the blood harvest, an Irish startup are making a biosynthetic replacement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Wg9nqdlZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Wg9nqdlZU http://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation-awards-sothic-bioscience-could-save-horseshoe-crab-from-extinction-1.2739195 http://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation-awards-sothic-... (disclaimer: I work for Sothic)

bpicolo 10y ago
I've been wondering when this would happen, such an obvious thing to target. Cool! Good on the founders, though I see competition in their future.
loeg 10y ago
What is the blood harvest and what does Sothic replace? I'm confused.
- sehr 10y ago
  Few people know it but the horseshoe crab is the unsung hero when it comes to medical devices and pharmaceutical products. The blood of the crab has unique properties that make it ideal for giving an absolute guarantee that an injectable product or implantable medical device absolutely sterile.
arcticfox 10y ago
Great news if it works and it's a cost effective replacement!

nosuchthing 10y ago

Aside from the apocalyptic theme from the website maintainer, this is quiet a comprehensive list of mass animal die offs that have been reported since 2011, when these reports begin skyrocketing. http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/animal-deaths-birds-fish-end-times.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/animal-deaths-birds-fish-e... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2015.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2015.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2014.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2014.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2013.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2013.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2012.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2012.ht... http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2011.html http://www.end-times-prophecy.org/mass-animal-deaths-2011.ht...

petre 10y ago

And of course gloabal warming is to blame.