Horseshoe Crabs

Horseshoe citizen scientist classes may be popular among environmentalists just caring for nature, but less well known is how much the creatures do for humans: a compound in the animal's blue blood has the unique ability to ensure the safety of vaccines, injectable medications, and medical devices.

A group of students are analyzing their science experiment after it was aboard the ISS and landed back on Earth.

The young scientists from Viera wanted to learn whether a component in horseshoe blood can detect bacteria in space. Judges selected the project to ride up in a SpaceX rocket to the ISS.

The crabs are drained of some of their blood and returned to the environment, yet some inevitably die. Regulators say revisions to guidelines for handling the animals should keep more alive through the process.

Horseshoe crabs' blood can detect bacteria and it is under threat in South Florida by habitat loss, red tide, and pollution so scientists are asking beachgoers to help.

The Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch Program says reporting horseshoe crab sightings provides valuable information about habitat use, population distribution, and environmental conditions for nesting.

Horseshoe crabs have been around for a long time. Hundreds of millions of years. But their population has never been assessed in Florida. And the state is looking for help from citizen scientists to gather data.