Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2003 09:45:24 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Magnusson, Nancy C." Subject: FW: [fws-shorebirds] Good News For Shorebirds, Delaware Bay, USA MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" This just came through on the shorebird list - thought it might be of interest to the group. Nancy Magnusson Ellicott City, MD Delaware and New Jersey Close Horseshoe Crab Harvest WASHINGTON, DC, March 3, 2003 (ENS) - Officials from Delaware and New Jersey have decided to close all horseshoe crab harvesting in the Delaware Bay between May 1 and June 7. The ruling is being hailed by conservationists for its potential to protect both a prehistoric creature - the horseshoe crab - and the birds that depend on it for their survival. Horseshoe crabs are thought to date back 450 million years ? before the dinosaurs, says the American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group that works for the conservation of birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. Delaware and New Jersey will also now require all conch potters to use bait saving devices such as bait bags, which are already required in Virginia, another bay state. These bags, advocated by the conservancy, can reduce crab use by 50 percent by enabling only half a crab to be used for bait in each pot instead of a whole crab with equal catch results. Restrictions will also be imposed on access to state and federal beaches during the peak horsehoe crab spawning time. This will apply to bird watchers, beach goers, local residents, and researchers. Despite past actions by the states and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to reduce crab harvest for bait, reported harvests went up in 2002 by 25 percent to 1.257 million crabs. Much of this increase occurred in Delaware and New Jersey. Maryland exceeded its voluntary quota by 67,000 crabs before closing its harvest. Now, Delaware and New Jersey have agreed to cap their harvest at 150,000 crabs each, nearly one-half of 2002 levels. Maryland has also agreed to maintain a voluntary cap of 211,000 crabs while saying it will endeavor to keep landings even lower, at the 2001 level of 170,000. The horseshoe crabs provide a crucial food source for shorebirds. "The relatively short period of this harvest closure is crucial to both the crabs and shorebirds as it is the peak time when the crabs come ashore to spawn," said Gerald Winegrad, vice president for policy at the conservancy. "Migrating shorebirds like the red knot stop off on their long journey north to gorge on the crab eggs that will sustain them through the remainder of their trip and for successful breeding," Windgrad explains. "This has also historically been the time of greatest harvest of crabs for bait, because the crabs are easily picked off the beaches, interrupting their spawning and shorebird feeding. We are delighted by the news and commend the states of New Jersey and Delaware for their timely actions on behalf of the crabs and shorebirds," he says. In the past several years, the crabs have been harvested so heavily that their populations have declined along the Atlantic Coast, particularly in the Delaware Bay. The conservancy and other conservation groups, including National Audubon and New Jersey Audubon Societies, along with leading international scientists from Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and Europe, had urged New Jersey and Delaware to put a halt to the harvest to protect red knot populations. About 90 percent of the Western Hemisphere's red knot population flies from southern Argentina each spring to feed on horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay. The conservancy says crab declines mean that many of these birds are not gaining sufficient weight to migrate to the Arctic and successfully breed. Dunlins, semipalmated sandpipers, ruddy turnstones, and sanderlings are also dependent on crab eggs, says the bird advocacy organization. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================