Release of Young Horseshoe Crabs at Rutgers Aquaculture Innovation Center on National Estuaries Day

Editors’ note: For further information, please contact Mike De Luca at 848-932-3474

What: Release of horseshoe crab hatchlings into Delaware Bay, tour of Rutgers Aquaculture Innovation Center

When: Friday, Sept. 26. Tours begin at 10 a.m., release of hatchlings at 11 a.m.

Where: New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center, 3920 Bayshore Rd., North Cape May, New Jersey

Who: Scientists, technicians and students from Rutgers University and Richard Stockton College; volunteers from the Nature Conservancy, the Wetlands Institute, the New Jersey Audubon Society and the New Jersey Sea Grant Program

Background: Sept. 26 is National Estuaries Day, and the tour and release of the horseshoe crab hatchlings is part of a nationwide celebration of the estuaries along our coasts. The horseshoe crab ( an arthropod which is more closely related to spiders than to crabs) plays a vital role in the life cycles of many species of fish, birds and mollusks, and has been under threat from habitat loss and pollution. The New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center has cultured and released more than 250,000 horseshoe crab hatchlings since 2012.