>> Hi. Hi friend. He's like, "What are you doing?"
"Please put me down!"
>> Here's a horseshoe crab a creature that's been around
for 400 million years.
And here's Rachel, the scientist who's trying to figure out a way
to raise them.
>> If you can see that hole that's opening up there,
That's her mouth and it's surrounded
by these two brush-like bristles and they don't have teeth,
so what they do is they grab onto the food, they walk
with it, they grind their food,
and they ingest it.
>> It's like a little eating orifice there.
>> So this is CAARE.
>> It's a backyard urban off farm in the heart of
Durham North Carolina.
>> Ca you explain how horseshoe crabs
and urban farming come together?
>> Kind of a perfectly animal to integrate into the system
because it could potentially be a high profit margin animal
as well as an animal that we should be thinking about
conserving.
Horseshoe crabs are big money to the biomedical industry.
Every time you get a flu shot
you should probably thank a horseshoe crab.
Basically any medical device or drug that goes into your body,
think vaccines, pacemakers, hip replacements has been tested
using the blood of horseshoe crabs.
Yes that's horseshoe crab blood.
The copper in their blood gives it that bright blue color.
But that isn't the only thing that special about it.
Horseshoe crab blood clots almost immediately
when it's exposed to dangerous bacteria or fungi.
It's part of the reason horseshoe crabs
have outlasted the dinosaurs.
But it's also the reason the biomedical industry
depends on horseshoe crabs
to make sure their products won't cause infections.
>> Fishing participants will go out collect the crabs
and put them in a boat.
They'll transport it in a truck back to the facility
and they will then bend the crab in such a way
that we have access to that membrane
to do the bleeding.
A horseshoe crab that's
maybe twice the size of this one
to the industry is worth about $1800.
>> Wow!
>> They don't even get a cookie or orange juice
after they give blood like we do.
So you know what happens to these creatures
once they're released back in the wild, nobody knows.
They're not tagged.
You become so attached these animals.
I don't know what it is, but
how can you become attached to a creature that looks like that?
[laughing]
>> You just have a soft heart!
Bleeding horseshoe crabs doesn't kill them and companies
only take 30 percent of the crabs blood.
In exchange millions of lives
are saved from diseases like sepsis.
>> But according to research from Kepley Biosystems
in some areas of the U.S., the combination of bleeding
overharvesting and habitat destruction
has caused a 95 percent decline of spawning horseshoe crabs.
So horseshoe crabs are stressed out.
>> They're really stressed out.
We want to offer a new way
to collect horseshoe crabs by your not pulling them
from the wild, but you are actually maintaining them
in a managed closed system - a trackable one
so we know which horseshoe crab was being bled
>> Rachel says it's difficult to keep horseshoe crabs alive
longer than six months
and she thinks it's because of their diet.
>> So she and her team from Kepley Biosystems
are experimenting with different types of food.
>> So yeah, they're receiving a very well balanced diet
to keep them healthy and happy.
>> The team's goal is to teach farmers
how to raise horseshoe crabs.
So instead of pulling crabs out of the wild,
the biomedical industry can rely on farmers instead.
>> Is it lunchtime?
>> Tail's wagging. He's happy. [laughing]
>> Is that what that means?
>> We can potentially set up
contract farming to integrate them into their farming system
because God knows farmers need to have more profitable revenue.
You want some... You hungry?
Hmm?
You just kinda flip him over that way, hold him from
that side so the hinge doesn't basically pinch you.
>> But for now we expressed our gratitude
to the humble horseshoe crab by giving him some treats.
Yes, it's like literally the Sarlacc Pit
from Star Wars
Ok buddy chow.