- One common problem is ignorance and indifference.

Until you can connect people to this particular critter, and create a reason why they should care, they pretty much go on their life with indifference, and these animals suffer all around the world.

(Calm Music) When you live in a place, you know, you take on the things about that place.

But you're still kind of an observer, unless you actually get involved in the places that you live.

So I've lived in Delaware for 28 years.

I think most Delawareans have to like the water.

If you like the mountains, this isn't the place.

If you like the desert, this isn't the place.

If you like the forests, this isn't really the place.

If you like wetlands, this is the place.

I love the water, I like being around it.

I don't want it in my house.

I don't want it in my backyard.

But other than that, I'm kind of good with water.

The horseshoe crab species ranges from Maine all the way to Yucatan Peninsula.

And the Delaware Bay has the best conditions for their spawning.

So they tend to be here in larger numbers.

I became mayor because our treasurer said, "Glen, if you become mayor, I'll cut your grass every week."

And Penny said, "Glen if you become mayor I'll make "dinner or you once a month."

And it went on kind of like this It was a joke, of course.

But I never got my grass cut, and I never got dinner, but I did say yes, and so I've been mayor ever since.

Within our community, a lot of people want to get things done, but they don't know how to get things done.

And I guess I'm at heart a simple guy and look for simple solutions.

We started a program years ago called: "Just Flip 'Em!"

So there are people within this community they come out, and they just walk the beach, and they flip over all the stranded horseshoe crabs.

And it sounds simple, and it is simple, but it's this gentle act of compassion that by walking down the beach, you just bend over and flip over a stranded horseshoe crab, and the animal goes into the bay, and survives to spawn another day.

(laughs) He'll be good.

And if we didn't walk by this morning, this might have been his last day.

Tomorrow might be his last day, but it won't be today.

One of the things that is important to know if you're going to help these animals is that they aren't going to hurt you.

Years ago, there was a young girl and a bunch of boys were around, and they were all afraid of the horseshoe crab, and she knew these animals quite well.

And she picked it up and just stuck her face in it so that all the little claws were kind of going around her face like this, and the boys were like, "Aargh!"

You know.

And that was a good way of getting them over their fear.

But even if you can't walk the rest of the length of the beach, and you see up ahead that there's other animals that you just don't have the time that day to help them all, that hurts.

You just spend hours and hours walking a length of beach, and it gets kind of frustrating to be doing that all by yourself.

The Delaware Bay gets surveyed every year so that we can determine the health of the population.

The data that comes from that survey will give us an idea as to whether the population is stable, declining, or increasing.

I sometimes think that the most important work we do in trying to save horseshoe crabs is how we're actually saving people in the process.

Changing the human condition in terms of our ability to see suffering in other living beings might actually be the more important issue.

(Calm Music) - (Helper) “That's 28-6.” The horseshoe crabs aren't really aware of the fact that we've done anything to help them out.

They don't wave, they don't wink, they don't even wiggle their tail in a way that means, “thank you.” So you can't be doing it because you're expecting some return on the effort.

You have to do it just because you think it's the right thing to do.

With all that's going on in the world, this might seem insignificant, but I think every little piece makes a difference.

- (Helper) "We did it!"

(Laughs) - Living in Delaware gives me the opportunity to serve in a way that is meaningful to me.

You sometimes wonder how close you actually are to what it is that you're trying to do because you get caught up in the minutiae of it all.

So here, for me in Delaware, it's much simpler.

(Happy Music)