Some 70,000 baby horseshoe crabs released on Kinmen

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 20, 2006. It reports that some 70,000 baby Asian horseshoe crabs bred in captivity were recently released into the wild off Taiwan's outlying island of Kinmen. The move was part of Taiwan's efforts to conserve the "living fossil" species.

The Asian horseshoe crab has a distinctive domed carapace that is shaped like a horseshoe, and a stiff pointed tail. Its appearance on Earth can be dated back to some 400 million years ago. The crab is now known as one of the few "living fossil" species in the Taiwan area. Its major natural habitat is the seas around Kinmen.

More than 200 Kinmen residents and students participated in the release activity, which was held on the shore of the Chienkung Islet and the mouth of the Wuchiang Creek. The released crabs were bred by the Kinmen Aquaculture Research Institute.

According to researchers from the Kinmen Aquaculture Research Institute, the Asian horseshoe crab is nearly extinct in waters surrounding the Taiwan proper, but is occasionally seen near the Penghu island group. Today, people from Taiwan can only see the crab on Kinmen. But even here, the crab's numbers have declined in recent years as a result of industrial and urban development.

Statistics show that the number of Asian horseshoe crabs in waters between the Chienkung Islet and the mouth of the Wuchiang Creek declined by 46 percent between 2003 and 2004. This is despite the fact that the area has been designated as an exclusive breeding zone for the crabs. The sharp decline in the crab population prompted the Kinmen Aquaculture Research Institute to stage the recent release activity in order to raise the awareness among Kinmen's residents about the seriousness of the situation.

In order to further preserve the Asian horseshoe crab, the Kinmen Aquaculture Research Institute is currently considering whether to zone the coastal area near Kuningtou as Kinmen's second crab conservation district.