Ancient creatures, modern medicine: Horseshoe crab monitoring in Brevard County

On a windy morning at Kelly Park East, a small group of volunteers fan out along the shoreline, clipboards and buckets in hand, eyes scanning the surf for one of nature’s oldest survivors. They’re part of the Florida Horseshoe Crab Watch, a statewide citizen science initiative that turns everyday Floridians into frontline researchers for a species that has roamed Earth’s oceans for hundreds of millions of years.