Horseshoe crabs -- and birds -- lose a round

At yesterday's meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's horseshoe crab management board, the board chose to maintain fishing quotas that allow states to harvest 100,000 male crabs a year. Concerns about horseshoe crab harvests, the resulting loss of horseshoe crab eggs on beaches and the impact on migrating shorebirds such as Red Knots have galvanized many birders, who wrote letters to the board.

The American Bird Conservancy disagrees with the board's decision. In a press release, Darin Schroeder, vice president for conservation advocacy, said,

“By maintaining harvest levels rather than adopting a temporary moratorium on all horseshoe crab take, the Commission has dangerously underestimated the needs of both the crab and the Red Knot. The ASMFC Management Board has failed to live up to its responsibility as an environmental steward, and ignored the Red Knot’s economic benefits. Each year birdwatchers flock to beaches in Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia to see the staging birds. Soon, there could be no more knots to watch, and it will be too late to act.”

Thank goodness for birders' efforts -- like those of Delmarva Ornithological Society -- to purchase migratory shorebird habitat (page 6 of the Sept/Oct issue of WildBird) that helps Red Knots.