672
Blueberry milkshakes (i.postimg.cc)
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Cheesus@lemmy.world 278 points 1 year ago

For those who don't know, the blue liquid is their blood

Why are they draining it in this way? Poor things.

[-] CluckN@lemmy.world 205 points 1 year ago

It’s catch and release so they let them go afterwards where they found them. Horseshoe crab blood is an essential biomedical tool that’s saved countless lives.

What are some example uses for the blood? I’m fascinated.

Thanks for the reply too.

[-] CluckN@lemmy.world 134 points 1 year ago

It’s an anticoagulant and can detect the smallest traces of endotoxins in medicine. I’m sure I’m missing some details but there are some great medical journals that detail the process and help explain why it’s $60,000 a gallon.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago

$15.85 per ml, for a more at scale measurement.

[-] jasondj@ttrpg.network 56 points 1 year ago

How close is this stuff to HP’s Cyan?

[-] gkd@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

With how much those things cost, I wouldn’t be surprised if some horseshoe crab blood was mixed in to really make the color pop.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Is this why the royals are rich? Because they have blue blood.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Mercival@lemm.ee 46 points 1 year ago

It is not an anticoagulant, quite the opposite actually. The blood (limulus amoebocyte lysate) will coagulate at the slightest hint of gram-negative bacteria and their endotoxins.

It's most likely a defense mechanism against bacterial infections.

It's widely used in medicine to check for bacterial contamination of injectable pharmaceuticals.

load more comments (14 replies)
[-] Zron@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Where can someone find these horseshoe crabs?

And are they able to be bred in captivity?

Pls respond fast, I’m already driving to home depot to buy the largest above ground pool they have.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] EvilCartyen@feddit.dk 38 points 1 year ago

The blood contains a coagulent which clots in the presence of bacterial toxins. It is extracted and used to ensure that medical equipent and stuff such as vaccines are sterile and safe.

[-] prayer@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The main use is to detect how much endotoxins (proteins that cause our immune system to react) are present in a sample. This is important because we often use bacteria/fungus/yeast to produce medicine and then remove the microorganism from that medicine. This checks for anything left behind in that process, far more sensitive than any other test or machine can do.

If it wasn't for horseshoe crab blood, creating medicine that is safe for injection would be a lot harder and potentially more dangerous.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Alabaster_Mango@lemmy.ca 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here's a description of the bleeding process:

https://www.horseshoecrab.org/med/bestpractices.html

It's specifically non-fatal:

Bleeding horseshoe crabs to death is not an acceptable practice in the U.S.

The volume of blood taken is actually quite small, as most of the material in the collection jars is anticoagulant.

It may look uncomfortable to us humans, but keep in mind that horseshoe crabs are not human. What's normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. Granted, it would be kinda weird to be hoisted from your home by a giant ape and forced into a blood drive. It's done as gently as possible though.

[-] bstix@feddit.dk 69 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately the practice often results in death anyway. 30% die in the process.

It also has unforseen consequences in the food chain, so by all means we should look for alternatives.

Thankfully alternatives already exist .

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

Still, I was disappointed to find that a large percentage of released crabs die anyway. Can't find the number, but it's significant. 1/3rd?

[-] lemmylommy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Afair estimates put the portion of dead crabs between 10 and 30%. Some might also be unable to reproduce due to the bleeding.

[-] Mercival@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago

Sadly a lot of the companies harvesting them will just kill and sell them for bait anyways.

Of those that are released, about a third die. Not to say about the decrease in overall fitness, which can lead to them falling prey more easily.

It's obviously a traumatic experience for the animal in the best case scenario and that is going to reflect on their ability to survive in the wild.

load more comments (27 replies)
[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Highest chance of survival/low stress

Edit: many do die still. I don’t want to say it’s safe, just safer

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 87 points 1 year ago

Obviously didn't read the meme. It's a blueberry milkshake. Everyone knows blood isn't that color.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Which proves they're all royalty.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Captain_Patchy@lemmy.world 150 points 1 year ago

People who know know that the crabs survive and are released back into the wild after their "donation"

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 65 points 1 year ago

Real talk I'm fine with hurting crabs for our own means. Straight up.

[-] dingleberry@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 1 year ago

Whoa! That's some Human Supremacist talk there.

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago

Hell yeah. Whole point is to get the species off the rock, then out of the meat suit

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] snek_boi@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

Or mammal supremacist. Or vertebrate supremacist. There are options

[-] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

On god, no cap frfr str8 bussin.

[-] MightyGalhupo@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Real talk I’m fine with hurting other living beings that aren’t me for my own means. Straight up.

load more comments (8 replies)
[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They're chelicerates though, not crustaceans. But then again, apparently everything evolves into crabs anyway

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago

If horseshoe crabs were to become less economically important, is that a good thing for horseshoe crabs? They ain't exactly Pandas, so will little Sally and Bobby care if horseshoe crabs become endangered? They're already in a precarious situation...

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 year ago

Horseshoe crabs have been existing for almost half a billion years, I would genuinely be sad if we endanger them to critical levels

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Climate Change is warming the waters they spawn their eggs in. They're becoming endangered from that. Not because of a few we harvest blood from.

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

I didn't say that harvesting blood is the one thing endangering them, did I. Just that it would be a shame to see them go

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] kandoh@reddthat.com 34 points 1 year ago

I think living to have your fluids harvested in factory farms is a worse outcome than going extinct.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] anarchy79@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

If you are any part of nature and also economically important, you get barbarically exploited until you go extinct. If you are not, you will be bulldozed to make room for the former. Capitalism is the best system of morality humans have ever, and will ever, come up with, and I truly cherish the utopia it has brought upon civilization.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago

Trivia of the day, horseshoe crab blood is blue because it is copper based instead of iron based like our blood

[-] joyjoy@lemm.ee 29 points 1 year ago

They're actually being fed the blue milk from Star Wars 8

[-] Maultasche@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

That was green milk. Blue milk is from Episode IV.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] MooseBoys@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It’s a simple, nearly instantaneous test that goes by the name of the LAL, or Limulus amebocyte lysate, test (after the species name of the crab, Limulus polyphemus). The LAL test replaced the rather horrifying prospect of possibly contaminated substances being tested on “large colonies of rabbits.” Pharma companies didn’t like the rabbit process, either, because it was slow and expensive.

From https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/the-blood-harvest/284078/ (emphasis mine).

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] anarchy79@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

This is the kind of shit you see right at the start of alien invasion type sci fi flicks.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
672 points (94.0% liked)

Lemmy Shitpost

27063 readers
3696 users here now

Welcome to Lemmy Shitpost. Here you can shitpost to your hearts content.

Anything and everything goes. Memes, Jokes, Vents and Banter. Though we still have to comply with lemmy.world instance rules. So behave!


Rules:

1. Be Respectful


Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.

Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.

...


2. No Illegal Content


Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.

That means:

-No promoting violence/threats against any individuals

-No CSA content or Revenge Porn

-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)

...


3. No Spam


Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.

-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.

-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.

-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers

-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.

...


4. No Porn/ExplicitContent


-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.

-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.

...


5. No Enciting Harassment,Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts


-Do not Brigade other Communities

-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.

-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.

-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.

...


6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.


-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.

-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.

...

If you see content that is a breach of the rules, please flag and report the comment and a moderator will take action where they can.


Also check out:

Partnered Communities:

1.Memes

2.Lemmy Review

3.Mildly Infuriating

4.Lemmy Be Wholesome

5.No Stupid Questions

6.You Should Know

7.Comedy Heaven

8.Credible Defense

9.Ten Forward

10.LinuxMemes (Linux themed memes)


Reach out to

All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules. Striker

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS