I found this article in the Virginia Gazette, Thought that I would share....
Virginia Gazette, 1/21/06, C1
Red knot future linked to laws on crab harvest
by DANIEL CRISTOL, DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM & MARY.
Allow me to connect the dots between you, the red knot, and the fate of the horseshoe crab fishery in Virginia.
The red knot is one of the world's most graceful fliers. It migrates from the tip of South America to the Arctic every year, using the magnetic field and stars to guide it along instinctive routes. Intense robin-colored underparts and impossibly intricate patterns of earthtone on the back make it our most striking shorebird. I got shivers down my spine when I saw knots in their Spring finery defending nests in Alaska. Last weekend I saw a lost knot, alone and shivering, on a beach in New Jersey. Like so many knots recently, that one isn't going to complete the 20,000 mile annual trip, because only birds in prime condition can complete such a grueling journey.
Knots and horseshoe crabs are intimitely connected. For just a few weeks each Spring virtually the entire northbound knot population descends on Delaware Bay, where they feast on horseshoe crabs. Without the fat from these crab eggs, knots can't make the last leg of their journey to the Arctic. When this happens for a few years in a row, the knots die without laying eggs and the population crashes. When I grew up on Delaware Bay 100,000 knots stopped each Spring. In the last few years that number has dropped below 15,000. This coincides with a huge increase in the number of horseshoe crabs hauled off by fisherman to be sold as eel and conch bait. Conchs are chewy snails also known as whelks or scungilli, and a substance abundant in horseshoe crab eggs attracts them better than other baits. The recent, drastic decline in the numbers of crabs counted on the beaches each year is the result of more than a decade of unbridled crab fishing for the bait industry. Besides the millions of egg-laden crabs killed to catch eels and conchs for European and Asian markets each year, others are bled for the biomedical industry, where horseshoe crab blood is used to signal contamination of sterile conditions. Many crabs that are bled will apparently survive, so this multimillion dollar industry does not pose the same immediate threat to horseshoe crabs and knots that the bait fishery does.
Virginia has not been cooperating with other mid-Atlantic states in responsibly managing the horseshoe crab fishery by setting conservation-based quotas. Whereas Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland have, at long last, taken drastic action to halt the decimation and save red knots, Virginia has encouraged continued crab harvest in defiance of our neighbors. The Commonwealth has shamefully refused to lower its catch limits to levels that would allow the Delaware Bay crabs to recover. We have horseshoe crabs and knots in the Chesapeake too, but not nearly as many, and these long-lived migratory animals don’t confine themselves to any one state.
And where do you fit in? A bill has just been introduced in the General Assembly that would place a moratorium on horseshoe crab landings in Virginia until crab and knot populations have recovered. Your Delegate may not know a horseshoe crab from a hole-in-the-wall, and will be facing pressure from lobbyists hired by the bait dealers. If you think that Virginia should do its part to stop the freefall of horseshoe crab and shorebird populations, please let your Delegate know that he or she should co-sponsor or vote in favor of HB 435. The solution is for eel and conch fisherman to find bait that isn't going to lead to the endangerment of one of the world's most magnificent birds. This moratorium will ensure that Virginia is part of the solution.
To find out how to contact your delegate go to: http://legis.state.va.us/House/Delegates.htm
-Ariel White
