New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
As horseshoe crab numbers decline, CT lawmakers pitch a harvest moratorium
Connecticut lawmakers are looking to impose a shutdown on the annual harvest of horseshoe crabs in the state’s waters, citing fears over the species’ rapid decline in Long Island Sound.
The crabs, which are actually ancient ancestors of spiders, have long been the subject of concern from conservationists and scientists who study the Sound, who point to their critical role in supporting migratory bird populations that feed on their eggs.
Proposals to end the harvest of horseshoe crabs, however, have prompted pushback from fisherman, who collect the crabs each summer to be used as bait in traps set for eels and whelk.
Even the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which is proposing it’s own regulations to sharply curtail the annual harvest, came out in opposition to a full moratorium earlier this year, with Commissioner Katie Dykes telling lawmakers that the agency had engaged with stakeholders for months to develop an appropriate path toward sustaining the population of horseshoe crabs.
But at a public hearing earlier this month, researchers and concerned citizens spoke overwhelmingly in favor of an outright ban, prompting lawmakers to move in that direction as well, said state Rep. Joe Gresko, DStratford, who co-chairs the legislature’s Environment Committee.
“They are telling me that the population is effectively extinct in Long Island Sound,” Gresko said. “I just think we need to do a complete ban and repopulate the Sound now.”
The legislation to impose a moratorium on commercial fishing appeared to suffer a setback last week, when it was passed over on the House floor following more than an hour of questioning by state Rep. Stephen Harding,
R- Brookfield, regarding the need for a ban with DEEP already proposing to reduce the annual harvest by as much as 60 percent.
On Monday, however, Gresko said that the bill had merely fallen victim to an unrelated argument over legislative “horsetrading” between Democrats and Republicans. He expected it be called for another vote as early as Tuesday.
Harding also said that he and his fellow Republicans would relent on their opposition despite his previously-stated concerns about the need for a moratorium, adding that he expected the measure to pass the House with bi-partisan support.
“At the end of the day, it is a declining population in our state and any measure that protects them from extinction in our state is one I intend to support,” Harding said.
Fishermen too seem to have lost their willingness to fight the proposed ban. No one representing the fishing industry or any of the 16 individuals licensed to harvest horseshoe crabs testified against the bill during the public hearing last month.
Those fishermen land typically between 15,000 to 20,000 crabs in a given season, which lasts from May to July, according to DEEP. Across the Sound, meanwhile, New York State caps the annual catch at 150,000 crabs.
Bob Guzzo, a fisherman in Stonington who used to purchase hundreds of horseshoe crabs each year to help lure whelk into his traps, said that existing regulations have driven up the price for horseshoe crabs and led fishermen to find cheaper sources of bait.
The proposed DEEP regulations would further lower daily catch limits on horseshoe crabs from 500 to 150, along with other limitations. With such limits in place, Guzzo said harvesters will likely avoid going out at all.
“It’s so little it’s not worth our time,” Guzzo said. “We’re probably going to move to alternative baits.”
The legislation would allow DEEP to permit a limited number of harvesters each year for educational and bio-medical purposes. Pharmaceutical researchers use blood drawn from the crabs in vaccine research.
Scott Smith, a spokesman for the Darien-based Friends of Animals, said Monday that that few horseshoe crabs are taken for research purposes in Long Island Sound.
“The time for harvesting horseshoe crabs for our use is long over,” Smith said. “We’re a long-way off from having a functional ecosystem in Long Island Sound.”