Horse shoe crab season
Each May between the full and new moons, these ancient appearing creatures crawl out of the bay to mate in the sand at the water’s edge. The crabs carve circuitous trails in the sand and we find them buried in the sand, the smaller male hooked onto the larger female. I have rescued a few, flipped on their backs and stranded on the beach when the tide has receded. Eggs are laid at the tide line and the crabs descend back into the depths. They molt, shedding their shells several times during the first year and may reach a width of about 1/2". After the third or fourth year the shell is shed annually, sometime during July or August. We find shells of varying sizes throughout the summer.
Their eggs are not visible to me, but they nourish numerous shore birds, most famously the Red Knot, known for its exceptionally long migration route and the current flagship species for shorebird conservation in the 21st century. Needless to say the projection is not reassuring.
Spring is shifting into summer. The Brandt geese have headed north, and the bay is becoming the domain of the cormorants, blue herons (great and little), egrets (great and snowy) and seagulls. Ospreys have returned to four of the six nests we watch for Rhode Island Audubon. The osprey’s dramatic dive from heights of 30-120 feet followed by the plunge, feet first into the water to capture a fish, is breathtaking. The rhythms of these gifts from nature are reassuring entertainment during these difficult times.
Now almost 8 months into the conflict in the West Bank, my colleagues tell me: “It’s a really difficult time. Things get worse and worse.” Another tells me the refugee camp in Jenin is largely uninhabitable due to repeated Israeli army attacks. During the most recent one, “They killed the head of the surgery department. Such a nice man he was. Everyone liked him. In fact, I thought about interviewing him while we were conducting the interviews. Now he's gone. His wife lost her brother a couple of years ago or so in the same way, and this time it was her husband. This in addition to some school kids who were on their way to school, among others.”
My colleagues interviewed physicians about their professional and personal experiences during the winter months. Snippets can be found here and we have analyzed, written up and submitted portions of the work in various venues.
How does one respond to this senseless destruction of life, on both sides of the Gaza war, as well as the Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti?
There are no easy answers. My colleagues keep working and moving forward. I try to support them. And I know that the horseshoe crabs have fossil records dating some 440 million years.