Hooking up with horseshoes

When assessing our family’s fortunes (or lack thereof) my grandmother would often lament that “if it weren’t for bad luck we wouldn’t have any luck at all.” Her declaration pretty much sums up my flounder fishing fortunes so far this spring. In half a dozen back bay fishing forays in Ocean City, Md., I’ve managed to wrangle a grand total of just three undersized flounder. I caught two of them on Thursday along with a skate and numerous crabs. As any seasoned salt knows, when something takes your hook, it’s pretty easy to guess what kind of critter is on the other end of the line long before it breaks the surface of the bay water.

Steady wriggling at the end of the line signals the preferred piscine action, most likely a flounder with some chance of bluefish or croaker depending on the time of year.

A firm but intermittent tugging on the line (sans wriggles) and you’ve likely encountered a skate or ray. Dead weight with no tugging or wriggling and the usual suspect is a crab. And if that dead weight causes a significant bend in your rod, you’ve probably hooked up with a horseshoe crab.

In fact, when I’ve cranked in significant dead weight at the end of the line, as often as not I’ve discovered a pair of amorous horseshoes entangled in my terminal tackle. And now that we’ve crossed into the month of June, such encounters with horseshoe crabs become ever more common.

Throughout this month, saltwater anglers and other visitors to our Mid-Atlantic shorelines and beaches, especially in Maryland and Delaware, may be treated to one of Mother Nature’s most spectacular but understated displays: the annual pilgrimage of millions of horseshoe crabs from the Atlantic Ocean to our back bays and beaches. Dating back at least 350 million years, these areas host one of the largest spawning events of horseshoe crabs in the world.

To ensure the horseshoe crab has a chance of survival, fishermen and beachcombers can do their part in helping protect this valuable species. If you reel one in,

delicately untangle it (and likely its mate) and slip it/them gently back into the water. If you spot a horseshoe crab overturned on its back, flip the crab over so it can return to the wild. The best practice for flipping over a horseshoe crab is to pick up the crab by its sides, not by its tail. While the horseshoe crab may look menacing, they are actually very gentle creatures and do not bite.

In fact, unlike blue crabs or spider crabs which can inflict some serious finger damage with their claws when careless anglers attempt to unhook them, horseshoe crab pincers are relatively harmless.

“This ancient species isn’t the most nimble creature, and their short legs don’t do the best job of helping them right themselves,” said Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist Steve Doctor, who conducts an annual survey of horseshoe crabs.

If you’d like to get up close and personal with a horseshoe crab, the visitor’s center at Assateague Island National Seashore regularly has them on display in one of their marine aquariums. Check them out at www.nps.gov/asis/index.htm.

In the wild, the greatest numbers of horseshoe crabs can likely be found this year on or around the full moon, which takes place June 9, or the new moon June 23. During this spawning period an individual horseshoe crab could

lay nearly 20,000 eggs on Maryland’s beaches and shores. The Delaware Bay is also a magnet for spawning horseshoes. Back in the day, when I would launch my boat from the ramp at Mispillion Inlet, the sandy banks of the Mispillion River where it empties into the Delaware Bay boasted wall to wall horseshoe crabs, especially in late May or early June.

The billions upon billions of little green eggs that these crabs collectively produce provide a critical buffet for migrating birds. These include ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, plovers, and especially the red knot, a bird whose migratory patterns mirror the crab’s spawning cycle. Blue crabs, perch, and striped bass also feast on these eggs. Clearly, horseshoe crabs play a vital role our mid-Atlantic ecosystem. Not only that, but adult horseshoe crab blood has been found to be an essential resource in medical products and research.

So, if you happen to cross paths with a horseshoe flat on its back flailing like an overturned turtle in distress, kindly flip it over and send it on its way.

AGENCIES TEAM UP TO HELP TROUBLED GAME BIRDS

A state-agency partnership is creating more habitat for two troubled game birds and other wildlife species that rely on young

forest. Since 2011, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have teamed to restore thousands of acres of idle, difficult-to-manage habitat for ruffed grouse and woodcock on state forests.

The partnership, spearheaded by DCNR’s Emily Just, an ecologist with the Bureau of Forestry, and Lisa Williams, a Game Commission game birds biologist, has been helping state forests and parks personnel write plans to remedy what ails now marginal habitats that once supported substantial populations of two of Pennsylvania’s most cherished upland game birds, aka ol’ ruff and timberdoodles. Both depend on young forests, which have been declining in Pennsylvania for some time. Grouse covet young upland forest – preferably with some adjacent stands of more mature trees; woodcock need young forest and shrubby thickets in soggy lowlands that offers their favorite food, earthworms.

“Pennsylvania is currently at a 50-year-low for this critical habitat,” Williams explained. “The decline of young forest has been dramatic.”

Pennsylvania lost about 30 percent of its young forest between 1980 and 2005, and declines continue, Williams said. Just 5 percent of Pennsylvania forests are young – up to 19 years old, according to 2014 forest inventory data

collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.

Reverting farm fields and bottomland, the loss of young forestland to tree maturation and landuse changes have hurt these popular native game birds. Sinking with their populations are somewhat obscure songbirds, like golden-winged and prairie warblers, the yellow-breasted chat and brown thrasher, as well as the more recognizable whip-poorwills, box turtles and snowshoe hares.

Although significant grouse mortality also is tied to West Nile virus, habitat is the key to keeping the state bird abundant in Penn’s Woods. It’s a conclusion resource managers agree with.

CHESCO SET TO HOST TRAPPERS’STATE CONVENTION

The 80th Anniversary Pennsylvania Trappers Association State Rendezvous is set for June 15 thru June 17. The event will be held at the Romano 4-H Center at 1841 Horseshoe Pike (RT 322) in Honey Brook. Tickets are $5 per day or all three days for $10. Children age 16 and under are admitted free. For more info go to PAtrappers.com