Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood? - Elizabeth Cox
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
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During the warmer months, especially at night during the full moon, horseshoe crabs emerge from the sea to spawn. Waiting for them are teams of lab workers, who capture the horseshoe crabs by the hundreds of thousands, take them to labs, harvest their cerulean blood, then return them to the sea. Why? Elizabeth Cox illuminates the incredible properties of horseshoe crab blood.
Lesson by Elizabeth Cox, directed by Anton Bogaty.
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The ocean holds so many mysteries.
Too bad we are destroying it with pollution. I read somewhere that humanity knows more about the moon than the first 5% of the ocean surface.
Anne seahorses and horseradish
Anne and so many answers
I got u fam 1000th like
So witty and insightful.....
It's amazing that they survived mass extinction and they can help us today but it's sad that so many are dying during harvesting. When the video first started I thought it was relatively harmless
QueenSugar what if we're the next mass extinction event!
Kazi Islam Hopefully.
+Kazi Islam, we seem to be one right now. The rate of extinction is currently way higher than it naturally appears to be. Scientists have begun naming our current geological age "anthropocene" (human age) because of this and other aspects of our impact on earth's ecosystem.
If we don't change things rapidly, we will be responsible for incredible extinction events.
sertaki We're not the only ones doing it though. It's been a known sign of mass extinction when large creatures of an ecosystem begin to die off and it's not just human causes, natural deaths across many large animals are happening quicker than they can reproduce (not that humans really are helping with that). These are the beginning sign of mass extinction if I recall correctly from my geology 101 class.
You have to admit humans are helping speed up that process.
The more we know, the more we want to know.
Thanks to Ted ed to bring such things to notice which we probably would not hear anywhere else.
Your Channel has nice animations too. I subscribed. Keep it up.
yeah. like how did they come across the knowledge of using hsc blood for medical purpose. Who's idea was it! it sounds so far fetched but seemingly they've been doing it for quite some time now ... @.@ I want answers NOW!
What a corny advertisement as a fellow youtube uploader im ashamed
Health Chronicle so true
A story to share. I was at the beach with my family in the morning, and we looked out at sea and saw hundreds of dead horseshoe crabs, later that day I picked one up by its tail, then buried it and marked its grave with a stick.
Horseshoe crabs to humans harvesting their blood: "Damn, why these mosquitoes so big"
Did you come back a year to fomment that on this video
jeremy
Indeed.
@@tameronica what a god
Hello recommended.
Udunno Meh
Indeed.
For further information:
- about a third of the blood is removed during harvesting
- the most devastating to the population was by far the fishing industry until finally regulations were introduced some time around 2000, until then millions (!!!) of Horseshoe crabs were taken each year as bait for US fisheries (exact numbers aren't available because no one monitored it)
- Horseshoe crabs aren't real crabs
- there's a couple of species, some of them live in Southeast Asia, the biggest population lives in Delaware though
Ah, and the blood is blue because it has copper instead of iron.
yes you are right and if you look at the marine fisheries reports in the states where they are protected, their populations are increasing.
In Southeast Asia we have horseshoe crab farm, not sure it same specie or not?
Hey thanks
looks like america is exist to doom us
I remember when I was little my mom and I flipped over a horseshoe crab that was on it's back then we watched it return to the ocean, I was so proud of my horseshoe crab child.
My god what a beautiful story, I'm crying man
@1234 and it survived happy end
@@awesomeninja1311 then it died after being released back into the wild
When i found a couple of horseshoe crab when i was little, I brought them home and they died several days after that. Still feel bad of myself for that...
Ok
Hmmm lots of horseshoe crabs are dying after we drain their blood? Well ill be dammed who couldve guessed....
Shazzkid at least better than fishing where there is a 100% chance the caught fish will die
Chi yan Yu This isn't related to fishing...nobody is eating these crabs...
actually people do eat horseshoe crabs
WeSuckAt Games cool, buts that unrelated to the topic at hand
You said that nobody ate horseshoe crabs, so I corrected you.
Why don't the scientists who harvest horshoe blood also protect the beaches where the horshoe spawn? That would give the crabs a steady and safe area to spawn and the scientists a steady supply of crabs.
They do?
I'd imagine it's an issue of money. Who is going to buy the beach when the sciences are already drastically underfunded? How are you going to pass laws to protect it if commercial interests want it?
They do, you've never been chased off a beach by a guy in a lab coat brandishing a broom?
I can just imagine a very angry scientist running after someone on a beach shouting "LEAVE THE CRABS ALONE!" while wielding a microscope.
In some areas they are a protected species. Very strict rules about handling them etc.
Horseshoe crabs: *survive the mass extinction of dinosaurs*
Humans: fine,I'll do it myself
Humans: Hey, where ya'll goin'?
Crabs: Non' ya business.
Lol this got me
Lol!
humans: *take blood* my business now
Best comment.
Humans: and i took that personally
In case anyone was wondering, LAL stands for limulus amebocyte lysate.
lol
@@User-nu6km just why?
lol
KHALIIL01 pretty sure they knew that those were 2 differenct acronyms?
No, it's Los Angeles Lakers!!!!
Sadly, the Horseshoe Crab has been moved to the Vulnerable Catagory.
Atleast it just vulnerable and not nearly extinct.
And they’ll be gone because of us
Horseshoe crab: Vampires aren't real!
Scientists: Hold my beer.
Edited for spelling. My god, what have I done!?
Hold my testtubes
Schientists
S c h i e n t i s t
*S C H I E N T I S T S*
Shy Dentists, no mine is very outgoing
I am a student at a marine biology class and we sent letters to senators and other companies and told them about synthetic alternatives to LAL and how harvests of horseshoe crabs was not only affecting horseshoe crab populations and how it was also affecting a species of birds called the red knot which exclusively eat horseshoe crab eggs on their migrations anyway I was surprised you didn’t mention the red knot but still a awesome video
I use to play with them as a kid. West coast FL... creepy lil critters but totally harmless. I haven't seen them around in 20 yeas.... didn't know we milk their blood- 😬😢
Tammie R That breaks my heart😢
Same here, used to see them all the time on the islands off the gulf coast as a kid but that's been a few handful of years now 😐
Originally from Cape Coral here. I used to catch them too. Highlight of my childhood catch and releasing horseshoes, little sharks, and rays.
I saw a horseshoe crab shell on the beach while I was doing a beach cleanup for community work, it looked so freaky and it does look really ancient
Wow , horseshoe crabs are pretty neat. Thx for your blood. Hopefully we don't kill them all.
We most likely will, considering our utter dependance on them in medicine. Let's just hope we either find a way to restock their population or finally having a formula for a synthesized alternative.
KidKangaroo we are close to making a synthetic version of it so hopefully soon :)
One can only *hope* that we don't murder them all
with carbon dioxide been absorbed into the sea, sea getting more acidity than ever, they most likely goes extinct in near future =(
Jeffrey Kiu Shiu Liong but climate change and global warming is a hoax by the Chinese
Today I learned that horse shoe blood is apparently blue.
Lol and it's actually true.
Because they are K-ings of the ocean dawg
+I was here I AM MINDBLOWN!!!
Most molluscoids, including octopuses and squids, have blue blood. Fun fact: octopuses also have three hearts.
+Ilham Hijrah Mustaqim i learnt the 3 heart thing from Finding Dory...
not anly horshoe crabs, basically any crab or crustaceans have blue blod, because they use copper to bind oxygen. we mammals use iron.
I remember me and my sister would always go to the beach and use the dead horseshoe crab shells as helmets we once’s when put one on her head but it was still very much alive.
I've seen some kids at a beach bashing a horseshoe crab with a basketball size rock. By the time I got there and stop them I found the horsecrabs body mangled and crushed. Those damn punks just stared at me like I did something wrong to them when I push them aside.
I never knew I needed this information, but now that I know it...where has it been all my life?
Jane Lennon and I've known it fir years, but I haven't done anuthing useful with it..
Jane Lennon d
Why can't we put trackers in them? Like we do with sharks.
Jagger C. How/where?
-babies are too small
-shed shell
Mi Les, I mean the adults we capture. We could but one under they shell (In the actual living part).
The problem is that horseshoe crabs die very soon after they spawn, meaning putting trackers on the adults wont help.
James Wampler, thanks. That makes sense.
+Jagger C. This things get to surface only when entering beach so tracking device is useless as water absorbs signal. It works on sharks, whales and similar animals because they surface to get air and that is when tracking devices send signals.
Because we feast on the blood of innocent.
Occams Chainsaw the profile pic matches that could meet perfectly 😂
Occams Chainsaw freaking weeb
And you are alive because we feast on the blood of the innocent, thank humanities discarding of natural selection too.
Occams Chainsaw Shut up pissy vegan
That face though...
When you're playing a minecraft modpack and you can automate everything except one resource.
I hope we’ve found a way to keep these “life saving animals” alive by now.
i love ted more than my bio teacher.
Ouch
TUNGSTEN 0340 not ouch straight fax.
Dude, my teacher doesn't know how to spell 'escherichia coli'
Ted Ed just entertains with science trivial Plus, your teacher gives you grades.
Ted Ed; Did you have a horseshoe crab transfusion
Me; NO NEVER EVER AT ALL
in the late 90s, my people used to eat their eggs once in years, but now they're protected so we don't hunt them anymore.
"Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood?"
We harvest horseshow crab blood?
Raymond V.M That's what I was saying too 😐
@@JustAlanIsCool and 40 other people
I remember I saw a dead one and I thought it was a fossil
We've screwed everything up just for our selves.
Horseshoe crabs are the MVP of 2019. Thanks Elizabeth Cox for the information. I wanna block the haters like horseshoe crabs block the pathogens with amebocytes.
Gram stains don't detect bacteria. They identify cell wall types.
Whelp.
Ruler_Riley 16 Sums up this world
Congo on 5 mil subs. uploading videos daily makes us happy thanks for doing it.
now I love horseshoe crabs....and I love this channel
Everyone looks so sad, this is so depressing :( .
Ikr :( their face is like "we know this is wrong, but we have to do this for our race to survive." Which begs the question, how much more do other species have to sacrifice for our sake. 😓
@@enchantking "our race" what?
@@Blake4014 "what" what?
@@enchantking far to many. Instead of evolving to be stronger and live longer, we take the easy way and take resources from other species to live longer.
Think about vacunes. We take poison from snakes and the Blood from the Horseshoe crab for ourselves. We take the fur and skin from other animals to keep ourselves warm.
We evolved to take away from other animals for our own bennefit
I didn't know we did and now I'm interested 🤔
Why haven't they put gps trackers on them?
On babies? The adults die not too long after, we don't know where the babies go for 10 years
OverlordLucs why don't they put gps trackers on baby crabs?
Justin W do you know the size of those baby and how what is the smallest GPS that is waterpoof :P
J C
They probably don't stay one very well. First off, it being a baby and therefor probably sheds it right off with its skin. And look at its shape, it's really smooth, not much to attach it to.
They'd more than likely have to microchip them like we do our dogs.
J C it wont survive the presure of the deep see?
I've gone ceptic *three* times due to a combination of my chronic illness and medical errors. These guys an the donated blood I needed to help my body bounce back from the brink of death saved me and I just wanted to say thank you to medical workers and people who donate blood thank you. Without these things I'd allmost certainly be dead.
You should thanked the crabs not the humans. Without their blood, you’ll be dead already
They died for your sins
@@timohara7717I really hope this isn't genuine.
I have seen a video somewhere on YT where they have shown that Horseshoe Crab blood has been synthesized in Singapore. (And they have probably allowed people to use them without licence fee for patent).
Horseshoe crabs, not man's best friend, nor man's favorite animal but goddamn they are man's savior and protector.
21 gun salute for millions of horseshoe crabs that died for us.
*I wanna know who was the first person in history who thinks "let's harvest horseshoe crab for making madicine"* 💀
Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood?
Scientists: *hehe crab make blue*
hehe
hehe
Not funny hate humanity let go save the world said the people killing the world
hehe
Hehe
Cool sorry. Found a lone Horshoe crab in an estuary once. It was flipped over and I freaked out, so my mom flipped it over and it swam away lol.
SomeDumbGamer not cool
I was showed a horshoe crab and i freaked too bcus i was a child at that moment
Now I understand what I saw on TV 8 years ago.
Imagine surviving several massive extinctions including the asteroid, ice age and many others but struggle against a bunch of furless monkeys with clothes.
Aw poor dino crabs
They're kinda cute
I never knew we ever harvasted their blood!
I can’t believe it!
Damn this is cool I’m glad we don’t kill em(edit damn 15% is too high)
Zach Jimenez put a waterproof camera on one
If my son is dying and Dr said only horseshoe crab blood can save him but it’s illegal to harvest it, i would not think twice.
It’s easy to blame science for decline in horseshoe crabs, but when lives are at stake, we do not have an option until there is an alternative.
I always thought it had something to do with horses and their feet... I never even noticed the crab in it.
*_"Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood?"_*
I'm sorry we what now?
Looks like were going to the era of metahumanity if we successfully emulate the horseshoe crabs' healing factors.
Horseshoe crabs are amazing. I heard somewhere that they're the ancestors of the pill bug, which is kind of weird to think about.
The beginning part sounds like the horseshoe crab version of "Alien abduction".
99% of us do not realize we even harvest horseshoe blood
Why don't we just farm them while leaving the naturally wild ones alone if all we need is their blood?
a random coment that's a good idea
We need to start
they probably dont live long or breed in captivity
they will evolve and will lose those precious blood just like dogs lose their instinct of being a wolf
apdroid geek That's unlikely
So, do the horseshoe crabs call us vampires?
What you call with the euphemism "harvesting" looks like taken straight from a horror movie
Ted: Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood?
Me: We harvest horseshoe crab blood?
3:21 Man horseshoe crabs are OP, they killed off the dinosaurs!
Thats why scientists are nurfing their numbers
@@lordrefrigeratorintercoole288 No. They survive EXTENTION in the dinosaur Era. Or simply survive what dinosaurs couldn't
@@Honoured_Mahes brother..m
I wonder if its possible to track the baby/young horse shoe crabs before they leave the shore to go to sea for ten years to finally find out where they go.
It's not because they take of the skin
Yes! You've almost made it to the end!!
Ted-Ed: Why do we harvest horseshoe crab's blood
Me: wait, we do?
Yeah for vaccines and stuff
Never had a horseshoe crab transfusion at all
If you watched 1 video you cant stop
ive never seen one, but man poor crabs
Humans:
Any species that is not ours: *does anything*
Humans: well buddy it looks like your ready to get eradicated
Why did I misread the title as "Why do Horseshoe Crabs Crave Blood?" LOL
I wonder who was the he first to say “ look a weird crab, I’ll bleed it and use its blood for medicine.”
Do they really swim upside-down like that?
Danielle Anderson i know right? I find it cute 🤗
the blood used in a ritual to summon the ancient crab god of the dssp
I remember an old "The Invaders" episode, in which David Vincent witnessed the aliens use a Horseshoe Crab to torture someone...
I got to see those while in Cape Canaveral Fla...
It is cool that they are harvested rather than killed...
Why don't we harvest horse shoe crabs in farms just like prawns ?
Medical industries: horse shoe crabs blood is so expensive. We don't want to sell medicines at cheap rates by farming them . Thank you ❤️
Never been this early for Ted-Ed ever
A million years? At that rate, the moon would've swung out of orbit, and all the topsoil would've washed into the sea, making crops impossible and making the sea too salty for life. So yeah... those are quite some extinction events they survived.
Wasn't the horseshoe crab one of the living fossils that scientists refused to believe was still alive?
Reminds me of how the trilobites were said to be an early stage of life, and then we found out they had the most complex eyes of any animal. Evolution religion at its finest.
that's just plain sad i was optimistic when the video started
Horseshoe crabs look so cute!
Nobody:
Ted-Ed: *_why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood?_*
this youtube chanel is awsome, bring a lot of neccessary knowledge
“There are some corners of the animal kingdom where humans must not interfere” - Mala
It is a tragedy that their numbers are dwindling in response to said harvesting. What would become of their numbers should we find out their whereabouts in that decade long absence
One day (a year ago), I was just walking down the street then I saw something besides the sidewalk. I went to look, I saw a bag full of sand, with a horseshoe crab on it flipped upside down, dead. I have no dang clue wtf happened to it. :(
When i saw the first part I thought they cut off their heads and drained their blood out of the skull base. Then he was like “Then they are released back in the water.” And I thought, “oh okay” and then I went to bed.
Why did this make me cry?
The horseless crabs often don’t survive after they are returned.
We only see them at the beach?
Well if ya want to know where they go, put a tracker on em while you still have em. Literally problem solved
Apparently, it's not that easy -__-
You talk like no one smarter than you has tried it before
The adults die soon after laying eggs, and the babies will likely shed the trackers off. If said trackers don't fall off or kill the baby first.
SpoopyMayo Absolute genius, how come we haven’t thought of this before, oh wait...
You can find a large amount of dead ones at cape san blas, Fl. Alive ones too, I was lucky to see 2 mating a few years ago. The cape is an ideal nursery, lots of sting rays and even baby sharks in the evening. I was always wondering if the dead ones were returned blood donors and maybe they took a little too much making them weak.
Human ability to drive any creature to its extinction is just superb.
You’re killing Horshoe crabs! let them live.
they are saving human lives
Say that as loud as you can next time you need and injection.
@@fartyfat6539 CRABS TRUMP HUMANS LET THE CRABS SURVIVE
I never believe vampires is existing... until this video.
Thank you little guys :D
If man knows there actions are killing them..
Why still harvest them...
There are no excuses
Large amounts of us would die from tainted vials of medicine if we didn't. v_v
@@shanicez9494 there is always a better way... People make excuses for takin easy option without looking...
Like taking their excuses as truth without looking..
Human as always destroy the nature
Michael McNamara For someone with an Albert Einstein profile picture, you are not smart.
Eye of newt, blood of horseshoe crab. No wonder people think science is magic.
Any other Delawareans? 👋🏽 A lot of this harvesting is done at the Delaware bay by the DuPont company until recently. We are on a two year harvesting hold. Just some fun facts.
Simple Answer: Their blood is blue and had some bacteria eliminating things that the scientist uses for "research purposes"
Human : Vampires aren’t real
Horseshoe crab: |
It's amazing that they survived mass extinction and they can help us today but it's sad that so many are dying during harvesting.
Other crabs:NOOO you can't just swim upside down predators can get you easily
Horse shoe crab:HAhAh legs go skkk