Take Action – Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition

Take Action

The best way to recover our horseshoe crab populations is by building a movement. Sign up to connect to our campaign and receive alerts about developments in your state.

of horseshoe crabs?

- Report locations where you see horseshoe crabs spawning on iNaturalist.

- Rescue stranded horseshoe crabs. Many states have organizations that train and coordinate volunteers in crab rescue.

- Volunteer to assist with a horseshoe crab survey. Most states conduct beach surveys on certain spawning nights that may also include tagging horseshoe crabs.

Contact your state representative and ask that your state marine fish units devote more time to monitoring both the bait and blood industry. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) only recommends horseshoe crab quotas and methods of take to the states, but the states are the entities that actually regulate. Ask your representative to compel state marine agencies to better regulate the killing of horseshoe crabs or create a moratorium until the industry responds.

If you are near a beach on the Atlantic coast where horseshoe crabs spawn, there are several ways to get involved through community science efforts:

Contact your local congressional representative or senator to express why it's important not to allow commercial fishing interests to dominate decisions to kill horseshoe crabs for bait. Horseshoe crabs are not worthless - they are essential to a functioning ecosystem. You can also ask the federal government to stop the killing of crabs for their blood and speed the transition to the synthetic alternative known as rFC.

What can you do to stop the killing

PHOTO: Jan van de Kam / "Life on Delaware Bay" 
							

Create a state working group or join an existing group within the Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition to develop new volunteer-based surveys of horseshoe crabs to help determine their status. The ASMFC refuses to acknowledge the importance of horseshoe crab eggs, but working groups can do it for them. State working groups can also rescue horseshoe crabs from impingement and take part in the stewardship of horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds that depend on them.

The Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition is made up of organizations across the Atlantic Coast, from fishing captains to bird conservation organizations to biomedical companies, that all understand the critical role horseshoe crabs play in our marine ecosystem. Watch to find out how your organization can become a member of the HCRC.

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Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition

2 days ago

Here is an update on this season's Delaware Bay Shorebird Stopover, from coalition co-founder, Dr. Larry Niles."We surveyed the bay again on May 26, 2023, finding almost the same number of red knots as in our first count, 21347 knots. We saw 12,466 Ruddy Turnstones in NJ in this count, and with the 11103 Ruddys seen in Delaware, the total exceeds those seen in 2019 and is much higher than those seen in 2020-2022."These are the final numbers for the season so we can rest easy that the 2023 Shorebird stopover on Delaware Bay was a success."Follow the link to read more on Larry's blog:www.arubewithaview.com/2023/05/26/monitoring-delaware-bay-stopover-may-25-may28/ ... See MoreSee Less

Monitoring Delaware Bay Stopover May 25-May29

www.arubewithaview.com

On our final count of the NJ Delaware Bay stopover we found similar numbers but in the last few days of May they all left. I discuss the distribution of birds on the bay

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