Massachusetts moves to protect horseshoe crabs during spawning

BOSTON — Conservation advocates are welcoming a decision by the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission to approve protection of horseshoe crabs during spawning, when the creatures are most vulnerable.

The move comes as interstate regulators limit harvests of the native invertebrate species to try to rebuild the population and help an endangered bird species.

Horseshoe crabs predate the dinosaurs and have lived in the oceans for more than 400 years, but their populations have been depleted for decades due to harvesting, partly as bait to catch eel and whelk, a type of sea snail, proponents of the movement of state regulators.

Their blood is also used to test for potentially dangerous impurities by drug and medical device manufacturers.

David O’Neill, president of Mass Audubon, said he was excited about the new regulations.

“Protecting horseshoe crabs during the spawning season is incredibly important to returning this keystone species to historic population levels that are critical to the health of coastal ecosystems, including the migratory birds that depend on them,” O’Neill said in a written statement.

He said Massachusetts is lagging behind other East Coast states that have strengthened protections for horseshoe crab populations, including New Jersey, Delaware and South Carolina.

The animals have declined in numbers in part of their range, and they are critical as a food source for the red knot, a migratory bird listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said it will not allow a harvest of female horseshoe crabs native to the Delaware Bay during the 2024 fishing season, but would allow a larger harvest of male horseshoe crabs in the mid-Atlantic Ocean to to make up for lost quantities. harvest of females.

Despite their names, horseshoe crabs are not actually crustaceans, but are more closely related to spiders and scorpions, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.