People use horseshoe crabs to catch eel and conch.  They are in very high demand because there is a two million dollar conch fishery and a six million dollar American eel fishery on the east coast of the U.S. In fact watermen in the Delaware Bay alone get 20-50% of their total fishing income from conch or eel harvests. Since horseshoe crabs are in such high demand by conch and eel fisherman, people are trying to conserve the crab.  Scientists have been working to make artificial bait.
     Watermen say egg-bearing female horseshoe crabs are the best bait. Why do eels and conch like them so much? It seems there is something in the horseshoe crab eggs that attracts the conch and eel. When tested in a lab as bait, an extract prepared from horseshoe crab eggs is more effective than either the tissue or muscle from the adult crabs. The problem is that it would be very expensive to make in large quantities. However, there is hope. The adult crab’s blood seems also to contain the same material that’s in the eggs that attracts eel and conch.  Although the chemical won’t attract as many, its source is more suitable and is available all year long. The eggs are only available in the spawning season, and it would not be a good ecological decision to start gathering large amounts of horseshoe crab eggs.
      How much longer till the artificial bait is made? Who knows exactly. Researchers at the University of Delaware College of Marine Science are working to find a cost effective artificial bait. In October, when we asked Nancy Targett, who is one of the researchers at the college, about what progress was being made on developing an artifical bait, she wrote, "We are making steady progress toward the generation of a successful artificial bait.  In fact we have just received some samples of an artificial bait that includes the active component from the horseshoe crab eggs. About a month ago we sent the manufacturer some of the active component that we had purified in the laboratory. He has incorporated it into his bait mixture and returned it to us so that we can test it in the laboratory and out in the field.
     The goal is to get the active component into a bait that is:

• 1.  inexpensive to make,
• 2.  that will last at least as long as the dead horseshoe crabs the fishermen use now, and
• 3.  that is stable at room temperature, so it doesn't have to be refrigerated.