As horseshoe crab ban phases in, LI fishermen skeptical of alternative baits

Now that New York State has approved a phased-in ban on the harvest of horseshoe crabs for bait and medical uses, fishermen who harvest or use the species to trap whelk and eels say it’s imperative the state works to find alternatives.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in December signed a law passed by the State Legislature that gradually reduces the annual harvest of horseshoe crabs from the current 150,000 per year to zero by 2029, cutting it by 25% increments each year.

State officials have been working with researchers and fishermen for years to find workable replacements for horseshoe crabs, which are quartered and loaded into special pouches in “conch pots” that are set in waters across Long Island to attract whelk — roughly 5-inch-long, snail-like creatures.

The whelk market has been a respite of sorts for dozens of Long Island fishermen who previously made their living by trapping lobsters in waters along the North Shore in the Long Island Sound, after lobsters largely died off there over the past two decades. (Conch or whelk are abundant in the Sound as well as Peconic and other East End bays, and in South Shore waters.)

There have been tests of different types of bait other than horseshoe crabs over the years, but fishermen say nothing attracts whelk like the sections of horseshoe crabs they stuff into netted pouches on conch pots that are set on bay bottoms for days. Whelk previously were unofficially classified as a nuisance species, and at one point the DEC forbid fishermen from returning them to the water, fishermen say. They’ve grown in popularity in Italian markets as scungilli, and more recently in Asian markets, primarily for export.

Phil Karlin, a Riverhead fisherman who for decades has long set pots for whelk after the lobster market died off in the Sound, said he’s not hopeful alternative baits will make much of a difference. "Nothing works like horseshoe crab," said Karlin, 85, who also adds discarded parts of filleted fish bodies, skates or other waste parts to attract whelk to supplement the horseshoe crabs.  

Karlin said he hauled in his last conch pots at the end of November, and he said the demand for whelk was poor in 2025.

“The market’s not there anymore,” he said. “They’ve dropped the price” from what used to be a lucrative $4 a pound to $3 or less. “I don’t even know if I’ll set conch pots this year,” added Karlin. He said the reduction in horseshoe crab landings and the eventual ban won’t help.

Tom Gariepy, a Blue Point fisherman, said he built traps for use by Cornell Cooperative Extension when it was testing different baits for whelk. “They were unsuccessful at finding an alternative,” he wrote in a message. State and local agencies say the work is ongoing and they are determined to find an alternative, potentially using abundant green crabs.

Gariepy said the whelk market remains viable for fishermen, but gear prices have gone way up, so pressure on bait won’t help.

He questioned Hochul’s decision to phase out harvest of the horseshoe crabs for bait. “I guess she doesn’t believe in the science,” he wrote, alluding to recent studies that have shown resilience in the population and increased landings. (Newsday last year quoted studies showing the Long Island Sound population of horseshoe crabs was in decline in most areas tested, though some have seen resilience.)

“We’ve already taken many cutbacks to let the crabs spawn,” Gariepy said of 2024 state rules that restrict the harvest during days of full-moon spawning in spring and summer. “All this [phase-out] is going to do is force guys who use crabs for bait into other fisheries and then that will put a lot of pressure on those fisheries since they can no longer go conch fishing or eel potting. There are no other alternatives” for bait. 

The Department of Environmental Conservation, in a statement responding to Newsday questions, said it has been working with Cornell Cornell Cooperative Extension and Seatuck Environmental Association, a conservation group, to study whelk responses to various baits. Results are due in early 2027.

The study is testing waste from shellfish processing and abundant green crabs, among other possible alternatives, to attract whelk while the horseshoe ban is phased in.

“If the shellfish waste stream, green crabs or other alternate baits are observed to be as attractive to whelk as horseshoe crab, this study would be used to provide future guidance for field testing,” the DEC said, adding that it will work with commercial permit holders to test any new baits.

Matt Sclafani, who is overseeing the alternative whelk bait work as a senior resource educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension, said the search for alternatives to horseshoe crabs is just getting started, but there’s a history.

“There are a lot of challenges,” he said, noting past artificial baits using synthetic material in a hockey-puck like form were tried by local baymen, and failed.

“Horseshoe crab caught a lot more whelk than the puck, which whelk seemed almost to ignore,” Sclafani said. He’s hopeful the new research, using local clam bellies, locally caught green crab and other products proves viable. 

“It has to make sense economically as well as be effective, that’s why these waste streams and the invasive species are very interesting,” Sclafani said. The work is being done at Stony Brook University's Flax Pond Marine Laboratory in Old Field.

Meanwhile, DEC said it will continue with existing monitoring and enforcement actions in the fishery to make sure the new limits are adhered to, though no new enforcement measures are expected.

Fishermen must regularly report their horseshoe crab catch during the season until the full ban takes effect Jan. 1, 2029, the DEC said, adding that the agency will “continue to closely monitor commercial landings” to make sure the harvest stays within new limits. The department may adjust trip limits (the current limit is 30 horseshoe crabs a day, but it rises to 250 crabs a day later in the year) or close the fishery to prevent going over the quota. Permit holders will be notified of limit changes or closures within 72 hours of their taking effect.

The DEC’s 2025 annual commercial harvest limit of 150,000 will be reduced to 112,500 horseshoe crabs this year, to 75,000 next year, and to 37,500 by 2028, the last year the species will be available for commercial bait or medical-use harvest before the total ban goes into effect.

Commercial landings of horseshoe crabs in New York last year were 74,078, according to preliminary DEC figures, a sharp drop from the 141,000 caught in 2024. Both figures represent sharp increases from 2020, when just over 44,000 were harvested, according to state figures.

The number of fishermen who had permits to trap the crabs, which usually takes place on regional beaches on the North and South Shores and Peconic Bay, totaled 457 in 2025, though not all made use of the permits (13 were not New York residents). The DEC issued 248 whelk-harvesting permits last year (eight for non-residents).

The limits on horseshoe crabs come as the DEC is also instituting new size limits on whelk that are designed to sustain that population.

For whelk harvested in the Long Island Sound, the new minimum size limit is 5¼ inches long or 2 1/8 inches of shell height. All other waters across the state marine region have a size limit of 5½ inches by 2¼ inches. There will be another increase in size limit in 2028, according to the DEC. The rules apply to commercial and recreational harvest.

Karlin, the Riverhead fisherman, said he’ll worry about the horseshoe bait shortage when he faces it later this year.

“They’re going to do what they want to do,” he said of state regulators. “I’m getting past the stage of worrying.”

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.