There’s a lot going on in a relatively short New York Post story about cops stumbling onto some poachers stealing horseshoe crabs from Jamaica Bay. First, there’s the fact that the cops who caught the poachers just happened to be flying around in a helicopter testing out night-vision goggles. That shouldn’t be too surprising considering the Batman-level tech of the NYPD, but still, impressive. Then there’s this gem about the crazy demand for horseshoe crab blood: “The crabs fuel a $60 million-a-year market for pharmaceutical companies that process their copper-based blood to sanitize medical equipment. One quart of the blood can fetch up to $15,000, according to experts.” That’s no joke. The cops in their helicopter chased one boat with two men and 200 crabs to Sheepshead Bay, but the other boat and two guys escaped, no doubt to an underground lair to plot new assaults on the city’s wildlife.
