To: Bluedot Living
From: Mass Audubon
Subject: Mass Audubon Leads Successful Effort to Protect Horseshoe Crabs
Horseshoe crabs have been around for 350 million years — since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Now, thanks to an effort spearheaded by Mass Audubon, they’re better protected from suffering the same fate.
In March, the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission (MFAC) approved a ban on harvesting horseshoe crabs during the spring spawning season (April 15 to June 7). This is the period most horseshoe crabs breed and lay eggs, with a single female horseshoe crab capable of laying up to 80,000 eggs in one season.
The new regulations are also important for the sustainability of migratory shorebirds, who feed on horseshoe crab eggs at many beaches along the Massachusetts coast.
Although it’s well understood that harvesting any animal during breeding is a practice that harms repopulation efforts, horseshoe crabs were an unfortunate exception because they are used as bait and are valued highly by the biomedical industry for compounds in their blood.
But now, thanks to support from the state Division of Marine Fisheries and more than 2,600 people who submitted written comments in support of the protections and/or spoke out at public hearings, our decades-long quest for stronger horseshoe crab protections has been realized.
– Courtesy of Mass Audubon
The new regulations are also important for the sustainability of migratory shorebirds, who feed on horseshoe crab eggs at many beaches along the Massachusetts coast.
While the new horseshoe crab protections are a step in the right direction, they aren’t enough to restore populations to levels we saw 50 to 100 years ago.
Even with a ban on harvesting during the spring spawning season, up to 140,000 horseshoe crabs will be harvested each year to use as bait for whelk, which is also an overfished species. Furthermore, up to 200,000 horseshoe crabs are allowed to be captured each year by the biomedical industry to be bled for a protein in their blood called Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL), which is used by medical device manufacturers to test their products for the presence of endotoxins — bacterial substances that can cause fevers and even be fatal to humans.
Researchers estimate at least 15 percent of those captured but released crabs die after being bled.
The win was a reminder of how a group of people who support nature and refuse to be deterred unite around a shared cause to shape environmental policy.
To restore horseshoe crab populations to healthy, historic levels, we must ultimately end their use as bait while simultaneously working to find alternative opportunities for those who depend on this unsustainable practice. In the long run, we’re optimistic that synthetic alternatives for horseshoe crab blood will become widely accepted and horseshoe crabs will once again be a regular sight on local beaches.
Shortly after the March vote, Mass Audubon held a rally on the Cape where more than 100 supporters celebrated a hard-fought win. They held homemade signs, wore costumes, and even performed a sea shanty dedicated to horseshoe crabs.
The win was a reminder of how a group of people who support nature and refuse to be deterred unite around a shared cause to shape environmental policy.
