Horseshoe crabs are not actually crabs, they are more closely related to scorpions or spiders. Horseshoe crabs have been around for millions of years, and they can survive just about anything. Except, of course, Homo sapiens.
Horseshoe crabs are collected for bait, and also for their blood. Horseshoe crab blood is pale blue, and contains special cells that swarm to the site of a wound and kill certain kinds of bacteria. This substance from horseshoe crab blood is used as a fast and effective way of testing medical drugs to make sure they are free of harmful bacteria before being distributed.
Yet due to overfishing, the number of horseshoe crabs has declined by as much as 90 percent in the past decade. Ironically, we who have existed on earth merely .0005% as long as horseshoe crabs, are contributing to their demise.
Source: Aquagenesis by Richard Ellis
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