Horseshoe crab sightings down sharply on LI; lowest in 20 years

The number of horseshoe crabs spotted during the high spawning season at beaches from Brooklyn to Montauk this year reached the lowest level in the 20 years the survey has been taken, according to recently released figures.

The survey, conducted by Molloy University’s Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring, detected a total of 188 crabs during the survey of 115 beaches, compared with 342 last year. That compares with a high of 7,908 in 2011. The numbers have fallen off sharply since that year and has been down for the past three years.

Just as ominous, according to the survey, the number of beaches that saw no detections of horseshoe crabs at all from May through August also hit an all-time high this year.

The number of locations with “non-detected” horseshoe crabs or signs of spawning was 101 this year. In the past, that figure has been as low as 16 beaches at which no crabs were detected in 2016. The figure for 2021 was 76 beaches.

The Molloy University center, led by director John Tanacredi, conducts the survey over 15 weeks from May to August. Surveying is done around the high-spawning new or full-moon tide, with surveys conducted during one to two hours along a mile stretch of beach.

The survey comes even as New York State over the past several years has instituted new restrictions on the horseshoe crab harvest, which is primarily conducted for bait. Gov. Kathy Hochul this year signed into law a measure that gives the state vast new powers to regulate the commercial harvest of crabs, including measures that could sharply limit the taking of horseshoe crabs.

On Wednesday, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said it "continues to take actions" to ensure a "sustainable horseshoe crab population," including closing harvest during prime spawning periods. In May, DEC adopted a new regulation that required those who use horseshoe crabs to trap whelk to use special bait-saving devices to potentially reduce the amount of bait needed. 

The DEC said it conducts a survey of horseshoe crabs with the Cornell Cooperative Extension that monitors 25 sites from Staten Island to Fishers Island, and the results show "varying trends." Three long-term sites showed wide variations from 2007 to 2019, then increased activity in 2020 and 2021.

This year's spawning season "recorded nearly double the number of spawning crabs" compared with 2021, DEC said, to more than 45,000 from 27,317 last year, though DEC said "variability" is common at most sites from year to year, with some showing increases while others saw flat or declining trends. 

Most horseshoe crabs are harvested by hand off area beaches during the full- or new-moon spawning season at night. Fishermen who use the crabs for bait in whelk or eel traps, and who have state-issued licenses, can take 150 horseshoe crabs a day during the season. Many freeze the horseshoe crabs to use for bait. Some of the crabs are harvested for medical uses, though that market has fallen off in recent years.

The lowest figures in the 20-year Molloy survey prior to this year were 244 horseshoe crabs detected on the beaches in 2007. The annual survey shows wide fluctuations in the data, but the figures have not been in the thousands since 2016, when 2,202 were detected.

“It basically says that the numbers of horseshoe crabs that come into Long Island have shown a downward trend in numbers and reduction in number of sites that support the breeding of the animals,” Tanacredi said.

He took aim at regulations that allow for a maximum harvest of the crabs at 150,000 a year even though fisheries managers “continue to identify New York’s population as in ‘poor condition,’” he said.

“I think the state DEC has to reevaluate its bait situation,” Tanacredi said. “It should be illegal to harvest horseshoe crabs for bait.”

But some fishermen say the 150 daily limit isn’t enough. Blue Point bayman Tom Gariepy this summer called on regulators to increase the daily limit to 200 horseshoe crabs, chiefly because total harvest numbers continue to be well below the 150,000 state annual limit.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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