Please tell New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to Protect Horseshoe Crabs by signing Senate bill S9419 and Assembly bill A07710 into law.
 
If signed, these bills will provide stricter management of horseshoe crabs and provide greater regulation of the taking crabs for bait or the biomedical industry, including minimum and maximum size limits, open and closed seasons including lunar closures, and a prohibition on the harvest of crabs during mating.
 
This will help to ensure that more horseshoe crab eggs will be available as a food source for birds and that horseshoe crabs are not harvested during their important spring mating season.
 
Right now, the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus) is under threat in New York State. Horseshoe crabs are important for the ecology of New York coastal communities. Their eggs are a major food source for several species of threatened shorebirds migrating north, including the Red Knot (Calidris canutus rufa), a threatened species that has declined by 80 percent in the last 10 years due to food shortages during spring migration from a diminishing horseshoe crab population.
 
Most other surrounding states such as New Jersey have laws managing the harvesting of horseshoe crabs. Over 150,000 horseshoe crabs, mostly thousands of mature females as they are larger than males, are being killed in New York State to use as bait for both the American eel and whelk or conch fisheries.
 
Horseshoe crabs are also being harvested in New York State for their blood by the biomedical industry that bleeds approximately 417,700 crabs along the US Atlantic coast, of which at least 15 percent or 61,500 crabs, but probably a lot more, die during the process.
 
In 2019, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission evaluated the status of horseshoe crabs and determined the New York population has trended downward from good, to neutral, and now to poor.
 
Horseshoe crabs have been on this planet for at least 445 million years. They are living fossils. Horseshoe Crabs deserve more respect than to be killed for bait or blood!
As New York’s horseshoe crab populations drops, so does income related to bird watching and recreation! Don't let horseshoe crabs vanish!
 
We urge New York Governor to protect horseshoe crabs now!