Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 11:58:32 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Gail Mackiernan Subject: Re: Horseshoe Crabs and Virginia In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 17 Apr 2000 11:49:57 -0400 from Actually, the science for protecting the Horseshoe Crab is quite good -- = but as often happens in fishery work, it takes guts to implement unpopular (e= .g, unpopular with industry) regulations. This is why so many of the world's fisheries are terminal, despite supposed government oversight. As an exam= ple, the state of Maryland was extremely courageous in the 1980s to implement = a moratorium on taking of Striped Bass (rockfish). The fishery managers and governor were vilified by many watermen -- they said, "the science is no good, the rockfish are down because of (take your pick) 1) natural cycle, 2) disease, 3) pollution, 4) predaceous fish, crabs, birds etc...) Of cou= rse, as soon as the species was protected, numbers rebounded tremendously, wit= h year class strength close to that of early days -- a clear indication tha= t the primary cause of the species' decline was OVERFISHING. The reproductive strategy of the Horseshoe Crab is somewhat like that of the Striped Bass -- several years to reach maturity, migration of stocks = to restricted spawning areas, multiple spawning over number of years by long= lived mature females. That the take of a single spawning female eliminates not only this year's offspring, but, in a multiplier effect, all of her futur= e spawn. Species with this sort of lifestyle often decline quickly when ove= r- harvested, and can take a long time to recover. And it is not as if there are no other baits for conch and eel -- for yea= rs watermen used bull lips and similar goodies -- but horseshoe crab is bett= er so now it is the "only" thing they can use! Sorry if I sound cynical, but I have seen this many times before, having = been working as a marine scientist on Chesapeake Bay since the mid-60s! The st= ates of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland should be commended (and a letter to the governors or their fishery agency heads would not be amiss). Virginia= is behaving much as it always has, but the protection of minor industry by threatening destruction of world-valuable resources exceeds even their us= ual irresponsibility! Gail Mackiernan ========================== =============================================== To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================