ASMFC Excludes Females from 2024 Horseshoe Crab Harvest

Earlier this week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) made a significant decision regarding the future of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay. In a clear victory for conservation, and thanks to the advocacy efforts of the American Littoral Society and our dedicated partners, the ASMFC voted to exclude female horseshoe crabs from being harvested for bait in 2025.

This decision means that no female horseshoe crabs will be taken from Delaware Bay waters next year, a move that will have a positive impact on the species and the delicate ecosystem they support.
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"This decision is the direct result of the outcry and opposition from concerned citizens, including Littoral Society members, who voiced their support for protecting female horseshoe crabs," said Tim Dillingham, Executive Director of the Littoral Society. "Thanks to your advocacy, 175,000 female horseshoe crabs will be spared from being killed for bait in 2025."

The Littoral Society has been working for years to protect horseshoe crabs, especially the females whose eggs are crucial to the survival of migratory shorebirds like the threatened red knot. Red knots depend on horseshoe crab eggs to fuel their migration, which spans thousands of miles. Protecting these crabs is essential for preserving the delicate balance of life in the bay and beyond.

In 2008, an effort led by the Littoral Society, working with the Audubon Society and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, resulted in New Jersey's legislature passing a ban on taking any horseshoe crabs, with exemptions for biomedical use, including research and the development vaccines. The New Jersey moratorium remains in place, but it is the only one enacted by states bordering the bay.

Environmental organizations in Delaware recently launched an effort to convince the Delaware legislature to pass a crab harvest moratorium, like New Jersey's.

More recently, the Littoral Society has joined an effort to add horseshoe crabs to the endangered species list, while also expanding research on the crabs themselves through radio tagging efforts that should provide better insight on population and migration in Delaware Bay.

For more than a decade, ASMFC has prohibited harvesting female horseshoe crabs for bait in Delaware Bay, while allowing up to 500,000 male crabs to be taken each year. However, in 2022 the Commission began the process for implementing a new Adaptive Resource Management (ARM) plan that would have allowed an annual harvest of 150,000 female crabs.

Beyond the bait harvest, the ASMFC has allowed the biomedical industry to catch an unpublished number of crabs each year in order to extract some of their blood, which is used to detect bacteria in medical products including vaccines. While the companies involved insist bleeding the crabs harms only a small fraction, there is mounting evidence that many die when returned to the water and others are unable to spawn for years.

The ASMFC’s recent decision to protect female crabs from harvest only covers the next next year, it marks a critical step in the fight to restore this species. The commission has also committed to developing a multi-year harvest plan that excludes females, which will hopefully lead to further protections in the coming years.

"While this is a temporary win, it is an important one," Dillingham said. "The work to protect and restore the horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay is far from over, and we will continue to push for long-term solutions that safeguard these incredible creatures and the shorebirds that rely on them."

Thank you so much for adding your voices to the effort to protect and restore the horseshoe crabs of the Delaware Bay and the migratory shorebirds like the threatened Red Knot which depend on them.