Horseshoe crab blood is vital in vaccine development — but they're starting to disappear

Imagine this: it's nighttime along the New England coast, and spiny, ten-legged creatures, 450 million years old, come crawling out of the ocean to mate.

Human hunters are there to meet them — to drain them of their valuable blue blood, which the humans need for medicines to help keep their fragile bodies alive.

That is not science fiction. That is today. These are horseshoe crabs, and the industry surrounding their valuable blood has taken on new significance amidst the race for coronavirus vaccines.

Ipswich-based science writer Bill Sargent is an expert on horseshoe crabs — he literally wrote the book on them. Sargent is the author of twenty-seven books, including "Crab Wars: A Tale of Horseshoe Crabs, Ecology, and Human Health," and he joins us to share their strange story.