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A Planned Restart of a Crab Harvest

Pits Conservation Against Industry
After a decade-long ban, the potential revival of crab harvesting
in the Delaware Bay poses a threat to shorebirds, naturalists say.

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Horseshoe crabs visiting the shore of Reeds Beach in New Jersey to lay eggs. Under
the new proposal, the fishing industry would be allowed to catch a total of about
150,000 female crabs for bait next year. Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

By Jon Hurdle
Nov. 8, 2022, 5:00 a.m. ET

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For the first time in 10 years, a fisheries regulator is poised to

restart the harvest of female horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay,
a policy change that conservationists say will threaten the survival
of the Atlantic species of the red knot, an imperiled shorebird.

On Nov. 10, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission will

vote on whether to move toward lifting a ban on the female crab
catch that had been imposed after overharvesting led to a severe
decline in the populations of knots and other migratory shorebirds
dependent on crab eggs as a critical food source.

Between 2003 and 2012, the population of female horseshoe crabs

in the Delaware Bay was estimated at 3 million to 6 million,
according to the commission. Since the ban took effect in 2013, the
commission said, the bay’s female horseshoe crab population has
rebounded to about 11.2 million.

Under the new proposal, the fishing industry across four bay states
— New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia — would be
allowed to catch a total of about 150,000 female crabs for bait next
year. The fisheries commission contends that the quotas set would
not threaten the crab population or the birds that feed on crab
eggs. Quotas for the harvesting of 500,000 male crabs would stay
the same next year.

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In a new peer-reviewed paper, Larry Niles, a co-author and wildlife

biologist who has monitored shorebird migration on the New
Jersey side of the Delaware Bay for 26 years, reported that the
density of horseshoe crab eggs on the bay’s beaches is only about
one-tenth of what it was in the 1980s.

“A lack of recovery of horseshoe crab egg and shorebird abundance

suggests that horseshoe crab harvest management has functioned
to stabilize populations but has been inadequate to promote the
recovery of horseshoe crab and shorebird populations, including
the endangered red knot, to levels that existed prior to a wave of
unregulated harvest,” the paper said.

Larry Niles, wildlife biologist, instructed volunteers during an annual day of trapping,
counting and tagging migratory shorebirds at Reeds Beach, N.J., in 2019. Michelle
Gustafson for The New York Times

Conservationists like Dr. Niles, who is a critic of the commission’s

policies, argue that allowing any catch of female crabs would
further reduce the supply of eggs, which is already sharply lower
than it was before the knot population plummeted in the early
2000s.

Lifting the ban would put more pressure on a bird species that
some believe is nearing extinction, they have argued. In 2015, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the knot as threatened, and in
2021, the number of birds migrating via the Delaware Bay beaches
dropped to a record low of 6,880, according to a count by Dr. Niles
and others.

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Conservationists who patrol the beaches during the brief

migratory stopover each May say the number of birds has declined
to a critical level because they can’t find enough food. The knots
depend on crab eggs to regain weight after a long-distance
migration that, for some, begins in southern Argentina. Without an
adequate supply of horseshoe crab eggs, conservationists say,
many birds will not be able to breed or will die en route to their
breeding grounds in Arctic Canada.

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Opponents of the commission’s plan argue that it is using PAID POST: BIOHAVEN
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harvests prove how reliant the birds are on this particular food
source.

“Despite that history and the fact that both remain depleted, they
are now assuming there is very little relationship between the two,”
said Timothy Preso, managing attorney of the biodiversity defense
program at Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm that is representing
the conservation groups. “We hope that A.S.M.F.C. will pause and
take a reset on this because there are some big questions they have
to answer.”

Mr. Preso also said the public had not been able to examine the
commission’s plan because the U.S. Geological Survey has not
released specific details of the model. A spokesman for the
Geological Survey, Jason Burton, said the agency was reviewing
requests for more information from Earthjustice.

Mr. Preso added that the commission’s plan to lift the harvesting
restrictions could be a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

Red knots at Reeds Beach on Cape May, N.J. Universal Images Group, via Getty Images

The commission defended its proposals, saying they were not the
result of pressure from the fishing industry and were based on
improved modeling and new data on crab and knot populations.
The commission declined to comment on whether lifting the ban
would not comply with the Endangered Species Act.

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“The conceptual model of horseshoe crab abundance influencing

red knot survival and reproduction remains intact with the intent
of ensuring that the abundance of horseshoe crabs does not
become a factor limiting the population growth of red knots,” said
Tina Berger, a spokeswoman for the commission.

The commission also pointed to other factors threatening the knot

population, Berger said, including loss of habitat due to rising sea
levels and coastal development; disruption by natural predators
such as peregrine falcons in breeding grounds; and an increasing
mismatch between migratory patterns and the availability of food.

The population of knots passing through the bay each spring had
been stable at around 45,000 in recent years, Berger said, although
conservationists contended that count was based on modeling
rather than actual counts.

The plan to update quotas has been endorsed by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, which, in its own analysis, concluded there was a
negligible chance that restarting the female harvest would reduce
the knot population.

The federal agency acknowledged that the over-harvest of crabs on

the bay in the late 1990s and early 2000s was the key reason for the
birds’ decline. But the agency argued that that the crab population
had become large enough to survive a resumed female harvest.

If approved, the fisheries’ recommended female catch would be

less than 2 percent of the estimated population, said Bridget
Macdonald, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. By
comparison, the natural mortality rate of female crabs is 26 percent
to 28 percent a year, she said.

“The impact of directed harvest on the female horseshoe crab

population is at such a conservative level that it would be
indistinguishable from the effects of natural mortality that would
occur even in the absence of harvest,” Ms. Macdonald said. “Thus,
we conclude that this low level of female harvest will not reduce
the availability of eggs for red knots or other shorebirds.”

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