Project Limulus Update

Another horseshoe crab spawning season has come to an end. You may still see an occasional crab cruising around at the beach, but the crab " love fests " of May and June are now just a memory.

Survey period number five began on June 24th. On a glorious morning full of sun and sea, we were joined by a girl scout troop, and Camden and Justin Blumberg, ages 8 and 6, respectively. They are the youngest members of our team. The kids quickly learned the survey protocol, manning the ropes and recording the data like old pros. We didn't find any crabs during the survey but I had found one earlier, a large female. They all got to hold her and I got to share all of the wonderful things I have learned about horseshoe crabs. Shane Gallimore, a high school student, who was also doing the survey for the first time, got to tag and release her back into the Cove.

No crabs were counted during the June 26th. surveys. However, thanks to a suggestion from Project Limulus team members Stephanie Donaldson and Mary Heffernan, we did take part in an environmentally important event called " Hands Across the Sands". It was an international peaceful gathering to oppose off-shore drilling and support clean energy. Most of the Indian Cove beach-goers joined us in this show of support. Pam Johnson, Senior Staff Writer for the Guilford Courier, wrote an article for the July 8th, edition. She included a photo by by Stephanie Donaldson. It was just one of many cool things which have happened as a result of my involvement with Project Limulus and Audubon. ( To access the article, go to zip06.com/guilford ).

That night, Lesley Orlowski,Lauren Orlowski, and Tom Kelly took over the 11:30 p.m. survey so I could have a night off. They tagged 4 crabs. Thanks guys!

No crabs were seen during the daytime survey on June 28th. and the 12:30 a.m. survey was cancelled due to the weather, the late hour, and the lack of crabs.

We did the survey two more times, on July 9th. at night and July 11th. in the morning. As we expected, there were no crabs. This officially ended our 2010 survey. I got busy sending data to Mark Beekey at Sacred Heart University. I want to congratulate my taggers; Jim Murtaugh, Lorrie and Terry Shaw, Melanie Tolley, Tom Kelly, Ann Delaney, and Katie Day for promptly returning their data and extra tags. Mark Beekey said we were the first team to have all of our tagging data in and tags accounted for.

In my next blog I will present a breakdown of the data for the year. Thank you so much to all the volunteers for your time and dedication. It has truly been a pleasure working with you and getting to know you.