Shoring Up Their Survival

SHU professor continues mentor’s legacy of conservation and horseshoe crab protection.

From the Spring 2025 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine

Jo-Marie Kasinak ’11 is unabashed about her affection for Limulus polyphemus.

“They are my favorite marine invertebrate,” the Sacred Heart biology professor says about the species more commonly known as the American horseshoe crab.

What’s not to like? These “little tanks on the beach,” as Kasinak calls them, are one of a handful of living fossils, having lived largely unchanged for at least 445 million years. They are crucial to the food web, with their eggs serving as a vital food source for migrating shorebirds and small aquatic species.

What’s more, horseshoe crabs have made life better for humans for more than half a century. After scientists discovered that horseshoe crab blood could rapidly detect bacteria, the pharmaceutical industry began harvesting their blood to create the limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test. It’s used by drug and medical device makers to ensure that pharmaceuticals, vaccines, medical devices and other medical equipment are sterile and safe.

After crabs are partially drained of blood, they are returned to the shore. But they can die from the stressful process. “The American horseshoe crab is not endangered,” Kasinak says, “but they are a species of concern because of how much we use them for human health.”

Kasinak, who grew up in the coastal community of Milford, arrived at Sacred Heart in 2008 with aspirations of becoming a high school biology teacher. She began conducting research with biology professor Kirk Bartholomew and studying horseshoe crab genetics as part of Project Limulus. The project is a large-scale, citizen science effort to tag and monitor horseshoe crab populations in Long Island Sound, which was founded nearly 30 years ago by the late Jennifer Mattei, a longtime SHU professor who passed away in December 2022.

Kasinak was alongside Mattei the first time she saw a horseshoe crab in the wild, so to speak, at the beach, the summer after her freshman year. “It was a late-night survey. We went to Milford Point Beach in Milford with our headlamps and our flashlights to find, survey and tag horseshoe crabs,” Kasinak says. “I remember thinking, ‘Wait, is this what science is? Because this is incredible. I could do this forever.’ And I am.”

From spring to early summer, horseshoe crabs crawl onshore to spawn under full and new moons. Tagging involves securing a thin plastic tag that lays flush to the shell (piercing the shell of the horseshoe crab doesn’t hurt them). Each tag has a unique number for tracking the crabs, which can live for 20 years.

Under the mentorship of Mattei, Mark Beekey (former biology faculty member and now dean of the College of Arts & Sciences) and others, Kasinak’s career trajectory shifted toward research and college teaching. She earned a master’s degree, returned to Sacred Heart’s biology department and continued to support Project Limulus. She coordinated data collection (more than 98,000 horseshoe crabs have been tagged), became director of community outreach and education and mentored students as she had once been mentored. Kasinak now has the role Mattei once held, director of Project Limulus.

“Jennifer wanted the program to have three pillars: research, education and mentorship. Her mentorship of students, even her colleagues, was very important to her,” Kasinak says. “She would see something in you that you didn’t see yourself, and she would bring it out.”

During Mattei’s 27 years at SHU, she was a driving force in SHU’s biology department, demonstrating a commitment to teaching and scholarship, along with a passion for conservation and the environment that extended beyond campus. She played a key role in developing the coastal & marine science (CMS) major, and she chaired the biology department from 2003 to 2009.

Kasinak carries on Mattei’s legacy by leading Project Limulus and working with global partners to conserve and protect horseshoe crab populations and habitats worldwide. This summer, Kasinak, her students and community volunteers will tag and focus on education and outreach events that emphasize protection of horseshoe crabs and their coastal habitats. In 2023, Connecticut banned the harvesting of horseshoe crabs as bait for whelk and eel. Kasinak credits the awareness raised by Project Limulus as crucial to getting the law passed. Nevertheless, it has become harder to find horseshoe crabs along the Connecticut coast.

^{Ceremonial signing of House Bill No. 6484 at Stratford’s Short Beach in August 2023, a bill prohibiting the hand-harvesting of horseshoe crabs or their eggs from state waters. From left at the signing were Professor Jo-Marie Kasinak with Ivan Mattei (husband of the late Professor Jennifer Mattei who played a big role in getting the legislation passed), Governor Ned Lamont and State Representative Joe Gresko.}

“When I was a student back in 2008 and 2009, we would tag hundreds of horseshoe crabs in a day at Milford Point. We could just scoop them up,” she says. “Now when I bring my students, we walk around for quite some time before we find one. It’s a good day if we tag 30.”

Kasinak is in her last year of a doctorate program, a path Mattei advocated. “I probably wouldn’t have done this without her encouragement,” Kasinak says. “During our time together, it went from a student-professor relationship, to a student-mentor relationship, to a coworker relationship and finally to a strong friendship.”