Ancient Journey: Following in the Tracks of the Horseshoe Crab

 

“I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed.” - Annie Leibovitz


    So there I was on the beach, early in the morning as always, to capture some landscape images in the lovely South Carolina Lowcountry sunrise light. As I wandered along, I was delighted with the sheer number of shorebirds along this still very natural bit of shoreline. Hilton Head Island has only been connected by road to the mainland since the mid-1950s, so the area is still quite impressively pristine. And, to my surprise, I came across this intrepid pair. As I wrote in my post from May 21, 2022...

    You can’t imagine how delighted I was to witness these two wonderful horseshoe crabs crossing each other’s paths as they headed out to sea one sunrise morning. I watched them travel about the beach for quite awhile before they lined up for, pardon my pride, this spectacular composition.

    Although a bane of surf anglers because they love to get tangled up in our fishing lines while stealing our bait like they’re the pond turtles of the ocean, they are incredible links back in time almost 500 million years, well before the dinosaurs.

    Did you know that horseshoe crabs aren’t actually crabs at all, but are more closely related to spiders and scorpions? They also have a long tail called a telson which looks intimidating but is only used to flip themselves over if they end up on their backs in the sand. And you probably didn’t know they actually swim inverted with their ten legs upwards. These incredible animals can live about twenty years.

    So if you see one struggling on its back, feel free to help put it down on its legs. It won’t hurt you and will probably head back out to sea in short order. And you can feel good that you’ve assisted one of the oldest living species in the world. Peace be with you, my friends! Isn’t nature amazing?

Clicking on the image will open it in full screen

‘Ancient Journey,’ witnessing the sunrise trek to the sea by Limulus polyphemus, the Atlantic horseshoe crab, from Fish Haul Beach on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina on a beautiful Spring morning.

www.johnjgiardinaphotography.com



Location: Fish Haul Beach Park, 120 Mitchelville Rd, Hilton Head Island, SC 29926, USA

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