Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Bioterrorism, and Human Health

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About Crab Wars: A Tale Of Horseshoe

Product Description Surviving almost unmolested for 300 million years, the horseshoe crab is now the object of an intense legal and ethical struggle involving marine biologists, environmentalists, US government officials, biotechnologists, and international corporations. The source of this friction is the discovery 25 years ago that the blood of these ancient creatures serves as the basis for the most reliable test for the deadly and ubiquitous gram-negative bacteria. These bacteria are responsible for life-threatening diseases like menengitis, typhoid, E. coli, Legionnaire's Disease and toxic shock syndrome. Because every drug certified by the FDA must be tested using the horseshoe crab derivative known as Limulus lysate, a multimillion dollar industry has emerged involving the license to "bleed" horseshoe crabs and the rights to their breeding grounds. Since his youthful fascination with these ancient creatures, William Sargent has spent much of his life observing, studying, and collecting horseshoe crabs. As a result, he presents a thoroughly accessible insider's guide to the discovery of the lysate test, the exploitation of the crabs at the hands of multinational pharmaceutical conglomerates, local fishing interests, and the legal and governmental wrangling over the creatures' ultimate fate. In the end, the story of the horseshoe crab is a sobering reflection on the unintended consequences of scientific progress and the danger of self-regulated industries controlling a limited natural resource. From Booklist Horseshoe crabs have lived on the earth 300 times longer than human beings, and ever since the 1956 discovery of an invaluable property in its blood, this ancient species has saved millions of human lives. In a just and reasonable world, the horseshoe crab, which can be bled and returned to the water unharmed, would be treated with the utmost respect. Instead, crabs are caught in massive quantities and smashed for use as bait, seriously depleting a population essential not only for a pharmaceutical test called limulus amoebocyte lysate, which is used the world over to detect the lethal gram negative bacteria, but also for sustaining migrating bird populations. Sargent, a Cape Cod native who has been wild about horseshoe crabs since boyhood, is intimate with every aspect of the species' life and the lysate industry now irrevocably connected to it (horseshoe crab blood is worth $15,000 a quart), a many-faceted story he illuminates by profiling fishermen, biotech entrepreneurs, politicians, and environmentalists. Our dependence on this amazing animal will only increase, Sargent observes, as must our vigilance in protecting it. Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved From the Publisher 6 x 9 trim. 3 maps About the Author WILLIAM SARGENT is a consultant for the NOVA Science Series and has written seven books about science and the environment, including A Year in the Notch: Exploring the Natural History of the White Mountains (UPNE, 2001) and Storm Surge: A Coastal Village Battles the Rising Atlantic (1995). Formerly Director of the Baltimore Aquarium and a research assistant at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he has taught at The Briarwood Center for Marine Biology and at Harvard University.