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Helping Horseshoe Crabs

There are several things being done to keep the number of horseshoe crabs from declining. The Ecological Research & Development Group, which is a non-profit organization in Delaware that has been trying to help horseshoe crabs, has had a "Flip 'em" promotion. A horseshoe crab sanctuary has been established, and people are doing research on artifical bait and bait bags to keep people from overharvesing horseshoe crabs.

Flip a Horseshoe Crab This is a top view of a Horseshoe Crab. That's the way horseshoe crabs should be on the beach. To see the underside of the animal, move your cursor over the picture. If you ever see a crab on its underside, please turn it over. Up to 400,000 breeding horseshoe crabs die because they get turned over by rough waves and can't turn themselves back over. If you see a crab on its back gently grab its shell along one side and flip it over. Its legs won't hurt you. Don't use its tail because it is more fragile than you think.

photo permission: Karl Heinicke

A Horseshoe Crab Sanctuary       Because people have been so concerned about preserving horseshoe crabs, an area about 60 nautical miles long and 30 nautical miles wide off the mouth of the Delaware Bay has been set aside as a horseshoe crab sanctuary. In early August 2000 Norman Mineta, the U. S. Secretary of Commerce at that time, announced the creation of a 1,800-square-mile federal horseshoe crab sanctuary that extends 30 miles into the ocean from Atlantic City, N.J., to Ocean City, Md. "Horseshoe crabs are part of the Atlantic coast ecosystem, providing food for migrating seabirds, and are essential for both fishing and medical purposes. Creating this preserve will help protect a valuable natural resource," Secretary Mineta said. "It is imperative that we do everything we can to protect the horseshoe crab,especially here in Delaware Bay, which is home to the largest population of American horseshoe crabs." Former Governor and now Senator Tom Carper, former New Jersey Governor and now Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, and Governor Parris Glendening had asked for this action to be taken to stop the off-shore dredging of horseshoe crabs by commercial fleets. This particular site was chosen because large numbers of horseshoe crabs live in the area from Virginia to New Jersey with most of them being found around the Delaware Bay area.It took months to work out the details of the sanctuary and fishing ban. However on February 6, 2001 it was announced that as of March 7, 2001 there will be absolutely no fishing or trawling for horseshoe crabs permitted within a 30 nautical mile radius of the mouth of the Delaware Bay.The U.S. Coast Guard will enforce the ban in the sanctuary.The sanctuary will be named the Carl N. Schuster Horseshoe Crab Reserve in honor of Dr. Schuster, the world's leading expert on horseshoe crabs. Artificial Bait Might Help Horseshoe Crabs      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 2000, 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.

We got the latest bait formulation late last week and will be testing it
this week in the laboratory. If successful, it will certainly help control the overharvesting of the horseshoe crab."

Bait Bags

Some people say that if bait bags were used when conch fishermen were baiting their traps, they would reduce the demand for horseshoe crabs as bait as much as 50%. Smaller amounts of horseshoe crabs would be used, and the bags would make it possible to use your bait longer. They would keep things you don't want to catch from taking your bait.The Ecological Research & Development Group (ERDG), the Virginia Institute of
Marine Sciences (VIMS) Sea Grant program, and Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) have been working together on this issue.
In the beginning of the summer of 2000, ERDG made over 500 bait bags. They used a design for the bags that had been used successfully by a conch fisherman in Milford,Delaware. This man said that by using this kind of bait bag he had cut down his demand for horseshoe crabs by 75%. The bait bag was made of 1/4- inch plastic netting. The bag was made by folding a section of the netting in half and sealing both sides with small steel rings. After the crab was put in the bag,the bag was put in the the bottom of the conch pot and secured with stretchy bungee cords. After ERDG made the bait bags, they were given to Virginia fishermen to test.Below are pictures of a conch trap. The one on the right is using a bait bag. The one on the left isn't.

                                 photo permission: ERDG
     A scientist from VIM named Robert Fisher, who had been doing research about using different kinds of alternative bait with Virginia conch fishermen, agreed to study the use of the bait bags, as well. He began trying to find out how effective these bait bags would be, as compared to what the conch fishermen usually use. By the middle of the summer 2000,
he found that the bait bags made it possible for the bait to be used longer. Other animals were not as able to get to the bait, so not as many horseshoe crabs were needed. Actually he found that 50% less bait was needed, and using bait bags didn't make any difference in how many conch they caught.
     In August 2000, when the people in the Virginia legislature found out how successful the bait bags were, the state of Virginia passed a law requiring the use of bait bags by all its conch fisherman. As a result, Virginia was able to reduce its self-imposed quota of 710,000 horseshoe crabs to 355,000. This was still more than the cap of 152,495 crabs set
by the ASMFC, but it certainly was a big step in the right direction.
   In the fall of 2000, ERDG manufactured over 10,000 bait bags and gave them to Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey conch fishermen to use. ERDG hopes all conch fishermen will start to use bait bags, and the number of horseshoe crabs that will be used for bait will be greatly reduced. Conclusion      Horseshoe crabs have been around for over 350 million years. If they are to continue to survive, and not become endangered or extinct, we humans will have to act responsibly and respect these wonderful creatures.

Information about the sanctuary was taken from the newspaper,"The News Journal", August 14, 2000 and February 6, 2001 editions.

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