Faced with calls to end the commercial harvest of horseshoe crabs along the Connecticut shoreline, state regulators said Tuesday they are planning new restrictions aimed at bolstering populations of the ancient species.
The announcement follows growing alarm from environmental groups who say that populations of horseshoe crabs are declining in Long Island Sound, potentially harming species of birds and other animals that rely on the crab’s eggs for food. Fishermen, however, have objected to new regulations.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said in a 2019 report that stocks of horseshoe crabs were on the decline in the New York region, which includes Connecticut. Overall, the health of crab populations in the region was described as “poor.”
Citing that report, the Darien-based activist group Friends of Animals sent state regulators a letter last week requesting an immediate end to the commercial harvest season, which began in May and ends July 7.
Thousands of horseshoe crabs — which are actually more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crabs — are taken every year from state waters as part of a fishery regulated by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Much of the catch is used by fishermen as bait for whelk and eels, while other crabs are bled and released by the biomedical industry, which uses their blood for vaccine research.
DEEP spokesman Will Healey, said in an email Tuesday that the agency plans to propose new regulations similar to existing rules in New York, without placing “undue economic hardship” on commercial fishermen.
“DEEP shares the concerns expressed by many Connecticut residents, and members of the scientific community, about the depleted state of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound,” Healey said.
Concerns about declining populations of red knots, a bird that relies on horseshoe crab eggs during its annual migration to the Arctic, led New Jersey to enact a moratorium on the harvest of horseshoe crabs in 2008. In New York, the annual commercial harvest is capped at 150,000 crabs, though the fishery is temporarily closed in early summer around the new and full moon, when higher tides result in greater spawning activity.
Asked what regulations DEEP planned to adopt from New York, Healey declined to share specifics, but said the measures could include new catch limits and closures during spawning periods.
Bob Guzzo, the vice president of the Stonington Fisherman and Lobstermen’s Association, said that state and federal regulations were squeezing the whelk industry — which relies on horseshoe crabs for bait — to the point that fishermen are turning to other catches or abandoning the industry altogether.
“They’ve been around for millions of years. They’re always unchanged by evolution, they always survive, there’s plenty of them around,” Guzzo said of the invertebrate animals. “They reduced the season to so small now, you’re not going to affect [the population of crabs] with what little bit of a season we have.”
The number of horseshoe crabs caught by commercial license holders have declined in recent years, from 22,037 in 2015 to 15,885 last year, according to the DEEP. Healey said 16 individuals were licensed to take horseshoe crabs this season.
Scott Smith, a spokesman for Friends of Animals, said Tuesday that the group was “grateful” that DEEP was listening to their concerns, though it would continue to seek a complete ban on the harvest of horseshoe crabs, including through possible legislation next year.
“Friends of Animals is not a half-measure organization, we’re calling on a ban for sound science and the right of horseshoe crabs to not be ground up into bait,” Smith said.
The Connecticut Audubon Society similarly called for a ban on the harvest of horseshoe crabs last year, and the DEEP held a public meeting to solicit input before the coronavirus pandemic ultimately turned attention elsewhere, Executive Director Patrick Comins said.
He said this week that the group still hopes for a ban, pointing to the importance of horseshoe crab eggs for red knots and other migratory birds.
While Connecticut is not as popular a stopover point for the red knots as New Jersey’s Delaware Bay, Comins said the birds occasionally get blown off course during their annual migration from South America to their breeding grounds in Canada’s Hudson Bay. Declining horseshoe crab populations lead to fewer crab eggs, Comins said, potentially dooming the wayward birds.
“That could mean that any red knot that shows up in Connecticut is not going to get the fuel it needs to make it to its breeding grounds in the high Arctic,” Comins said.
Healey did not give a timeline for when DEEP might come out with its new regulations, though environmentalists said there was an urgent need to take action before the end of the season in July.
The next full moon, when tides will be best for the crabs to lay their eggs, is June 24.
June 16, 2021 at 05:08PM
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Connecticut to propose new limits on harvesting horseshoe crabs, as environmentalists call for full ban - Middletown Press
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