As part of conservation efforts to protect horseshoe crabs, 6,000 tiny hatchlings were released into Cape May Canal waters in Lower Township, N.J., over the weekend.

The baby horseshoe crabs were grown and then released into the wild by the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center, the Associated Press reported.

More closely related to arachnids than crustaceans, the unusual horseshoe crab is a valuable resource that fuels an industry worth around $50 million annually.

"They're important to us because they play such a vital role in the health of the bay and provide myriad benefits to the local fishing industry, migratory shorebirds population and the state's biomedical industry," said Michael P. De Luca, senior associate director of Rutgers Institute Marine and Coastal Sciences, which runs the center, as quoted by The Inquirer.

In the past two years, the New Jersey center has released 250,000 horseshoe crab hatchlings into the Cape May Canal.

Each smaller than a child's fingernail, the 6,000 baby horseshoe crabs released on Friday fit into just six buckets filled with seawater, The Inquirer reported.

Horseshoe crab is especially vital for the medical industry, which uses a protein in horseshoe crab blood to test medical instruments, implants and pharmaceuticals for impurities.

Because horseshoe crabs don't have an immune system, they need another way to isolate impurities especially in environments filled with bacteria.

Around 611,800 crabs were taken in 2012 for biomedical use, according to data from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

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