State Senate approves horseshoe-crab harvest ban

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State Senate approves horseshoe-crab harvest ban

By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, 609-463-6711

Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

TRENTON - The state Senate approved legislation Monday to ban horseshoe-crab harvesting in a 39-0 vote.

The Assembly version of the bill designed to help red knots and other migrating shorebirds that feast on horseshoe-crab eggs was approved last week in a 70-6 decision. Gov. Jon S. Corzine is expected to sign the legislation.

"We think it's a great victory for the red knots and the conservation of horseshoe crabs," said Tim Dillingham, of the American Littoral Society.

The bill may help birds, but it will have an economic impact on 34 crab harvesters, most from southern New Jersey, including 11 military veterans. They already faced a moratorium on harvesting this year set by the N.J. Marine Fisheries Council, but the state law only allows it to be lifted if a certain level of crab eggs and red knots are achieved. The council could have lifted it without such triggers. Dillingham said this is the way it should be.

"When the horseshoe crabs and red knot populations are healthy enough to sustain them, then they can harvest again. That's the best of all worlds," Dillingham said.

Those violating the ban face a $10,000 fine for the first offense and $25,000 for each additional offense. The bill does allow possession of crabs, which fishermen use to catch conch and eel, from out-of-state.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, D-Middlesex, and Sen. Bob Gordon, D-Bergen.

"Without a moratorium on the taking of horseshoe crabs, there are certain species of red knot that will be extinct within the next five years," said Gordon. "We are paying the price today, in terms of dwindling numbers of red knots, for years of overfishing of horseshoe crabs in the 1990s. Until the red knot has rebounded to a point where these shorebirds are no longer in jeopardy, we need a strict and absolute moratorium to undo our damage to the ecosystem."

The legislation would retain the moratorium until red knot numbers reach the numbers outlined in the United States Shorebird Conservation Plan of May 2001. This is 240,000 birds. By some estimates, the numbers are below 20,000 birds.

The bill also requires evidence of an adequate egg supply before the ban is lifted.

To e-mail Richard Degener at The Press:

RDegener@pressofac.com