|
State environmentalists say the state should enact a full moratorium on harvesting horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay.
At the same time, scientific studies show the horseshoe crab population is increasing – but their eggs, which migrating shorebirds feast upon – are not yet up to healthy 1990 levels.
Crab populations appear to be recovering, but the shorebirds that rely on the fat-rich crab eggs are not.
“We’re seeing a decline here. The red knot decline is just the beginning of this message,” said Faith Zerbe of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
A 2008 New Jersey Fish & Wildlife report shows that egg densities are still very low, said Zerbe. While the crab population is increasing, they’re still not producing eggs, since horseshoe crabs start spawning when they are eight or nine years old, she said.
On Wednesday, July 16, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control hosted a public hearing of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to discuss a draft proposal to continue horseshoe crab management in the state.
Horseshoe crabs are used as bait for the conch and eel fishing industries as well as for medical and scientific testing.
But after horseshoe crabs were over-fished and their population diminished in the 1990s, in 1998, a fishery management plan was put in place to manage the crab population.
These measures were designed to protect horseshoe crab spawning within the Delaware Bay – the epicenter of spawning activity along the Atlantic Coast, the fisheries commission says.
The Delaware Bay is also a significant stop-over for migratory birds, which feed off horseshoe crab eggs, including the ruddy turnstone, sandpipers and Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles.
In 2000, the Horseshoe Crab Management Board approved the first addendum to the plan. Today, Addendum 4 is set to expire after Sept. 30, and the fisheries commission is taking public comment of what to do next. Delaware must comply by October.
Addendum 5 includes a proposal to allow increased crab harvesting – by 50,000 crabs – with no crab-harvesting during the peak spawning season.
Another proposal is to continue the state’s current policy, which prohibits crab harvesting during the peak spawning-season and restricts harvesting to 100,000 crabs – male crabs only.
In the meantime, a U.S. Geological Survey shows crab population is growing. So does a Virginia Tech study, which also shows increases for crab populations in the bay.
“While bird populations decline, the horseshoe crab population shows the opposite trend,” said Senior Fisheries Management Plan Coordinator Braddock Spear.
New Jersey currently has a moratorium in place on crab-harvesting. Delaware also tried to enact one, but the Delaware plan was overturned through a court challenge.
Despite research showing increased crab populations, Zerbe and others say the red knot might become extinct by 2010, if a moratorium is not enacted. A full moratorium in Delaware might pressure other states to follow, says Glenn Gauvry, president of the Milton-based Ecological Research & Development Group Inc.
He said the fisheries commission could consider a moratorium, but is not required to, but Spear said the commission would take moratorium suggestions into consideration.
Rick Robbins of Chesapeake Bay Packing LLC, a company that uses horseshoe crabs for bait, said studies indicate a healthy crab population returning. Robbins, who spoke at the public hearing, said he supports continuing a restricted harvest for at least another year.
He also said red knot and other shorebird population declines have nothing to do with lesscrab egg-laying. Instead, he says, recent storms locally washed eggs farther into the bay.
He also said red tide resulted in a major bird kill in South America where the birds originate.
He said male crabs outnumber female crabs 4-1 in Delaware Bay and could be harvested without disrupting the population and continued egg-laying.
“The science clearly shows that the red knots are not gaining the weight they need as they forage along the Delaware Bay and the horseshoe crab egg densities are inadequate.
“They are arriving and searching the beaches for crab eggs and not finding them. We have gotten an overwhelming response from the public that they want to see the red knot given the most protection possible to try to save this bird from extinction,” said Zerbe.
To submit comments regarding horseshoe conservation, email comments@asmfc.org with the subject line: horseshoe crabs.
|
