Eight young horseshoe crabs were spotted at Siangshan Wetlands (香山濕地) during a field study held by the Hsinchu City Government and the Ocean Conservation Administration, the city government said in a news release on Sunday.
It was the biggest number of young horseshoe crabs found in a single day in the area, which has a 1,768-hectare intertidal zone, making it the largest wetland in northern Taiwan. The field study was led by Jay Yang (楊明哲), a horseshoe crab conservation expert.
The horseshoe crab, also known as the king crab, is a living fossil that first appeared on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu City Government
There are four kinds of horseshoe crab in the world, one of which is the Chinese horseshoe crab (or the tri-spine horseshoe crab), which can be found in Taiwan and was listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2019, Yang said.
Besides the outlying counties of Kinmen and Penghu, where young horseshoe crabs are more often spotted, they are barely seen on Taiwan proper, with rare sightings at Siangshan Wetlands, Chiayi County’s Budai Township (布袋) and in Tainan, he said.
The eight young horseshoe crabs might have hatched five years ago, Yang said, adding that Siangshan Wetlands might attract them because of its sandification and the food it provides.
Yang said the mud at the wetlands was more sandified than it was in August last year, as it reached the middle of his calves then, but only his ankles this year.
It might be due to the removal of the artificially planted mangrove forest there, he said, adding that the wetland’s rich seaweed and small aquatic animals provide food for the young horseshoe crabs.
The Siangshan Wetlands are a key middle point of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, at which migratory waterbirds can enjoy rich resources and rest, Acting Hsinchu Mayor Chen Chang-hsian (陳章賢) said.
Urging members of the public not to enter the wetlands so as not to harm the horseshoe crabs and other wetland creatures, the city government said that those who do so can be fined NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$10,001 to US$50,007) under the Wetland Conservation Act (濕地保育法).
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