Allison Colyer

Just Flip 'Em

Just Flip 'Em

I took a 15-hour direct flight from Mumbai to JFK after my friend’s wedding in India. My dad picked me up from the airport and took me to my parents’ home on Long Island. It was only 9:00 am when I arrived, but I did what everyone tells you not to do: I went straight to sleep.

The next day, I was wide awake at 4:00 am, so I ran down to the Long Island Sound. It was low tide, and the beach was filled with upside-down horseshoe crabs, stranded by the receding water. Scavenging seagulls waddled along the shore. When I approached one of the horseshoe crabs, it wiggled its insect-like legs at me, helplessly stuck on its back. When I touched its shell, it curled its tail in towards its body, trying desperately to right itself. I gently flipped it over with both hands. Instinctively, it hinged like an inchworm and found its footing in the sand. Right away, it started walking slowly towards the water. I knew at that moment that I now had a mission.

I ran up and down the beach to flip them over, one by one. Some of them were slower than others, so I would carry them closer to the water or give them a gentle toss back into the sound. Not every re-entry was graceful; some crabs tumbled in the gentle waves for a few seconds before vanishing into the murky morning water.

Naturally, I went home and read all about horseshoe crabs. Despite growing up around them, I had never given them much thought. Here’s what I learned:

  1. People on the West Coast have never heard of them and think they are dinosaurs (understandably).
  2. Horseshoe crabs have blue blood that is important to medicine.
  3. They have not evolved very much in their 450 million years of existence.
  4. The Ecological Research & Development Group (ERDG) once made an entire song and music video featuring very 2000s-looking kids to promote a “Just flip ‘em!” campaign aimed at getting people to flip over upside-down horseshoe crabs so they can scuttle back to the ocean.

For about a week, while I was on this weird sleep schedule, it became my purpose to get down to the beach before sunrise and “just flip ‘em”. I felt a sense of duty. If I didn’t go, who would flip them?

Eventually, my dedication to saving horseshoe crabs succumbed to my body’s need for sleep. Sometimes I still wonder if there are any heroes waking up at the crack of dawn to “just flip ‘em” before the seagulls get their snack.