Horseshoe crab moratorium. Is it about the crabs, or the pharmaceutical companies? [Archive]

hookset

06-09-2008, 11:24 AM

Bill would cut fines for illegally harvesting horseshoe crabs

by The Associated Press Monday June 09, 2008, 11:13 AM

A bill that would significantly reduce the fines for illegally harvesting horseshoe crabs in New Jersey is being considered.
Sen. Jeff Van Drew's proposal would lower fines to $2,500 from $10,000. The Democrat says the change is necessary because commercial fishermen earn modest salaries and violators are subject to additional penalties under a commercial fisheries law.
The bill was pulled from the Senate Environmental Committee agenda in May but is up for consideration today.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a law in March imposing an indefinite crabbing ban. The law aims to help a threatened migrating shorebird that feeds on the crabs' eggs.

bababooey

06-28-2008, 03:51 PM

This is good. Soem of these eco concerns are getting way out of hand.:kooky:

Eco-groups lose battle over crabs

Sought a harvest ban like N.J.'s in Delaware

Friday, June 27, 2008BY BRIAN T. MURRAY

Star-Ledger Staff
Environmentalists have lost a court fight in their attempt to impose a New Jersey-style ban on horseshoe crab harvests on the Delaware side of the Delaware Bay, where scientists have linked a drop in crab eggs to the decline of a shore bird known as the red knot.

At the same time, commercial fishermen are celebrating Wednesday's ruling by the Delaware Supreme Court, which refused to consider a challenge by the environmental groups to a state policy that permits the annual harvest of 100,000 male-only crabs.

The fishermen, who use the crabs for bait in the lucrative conch and eel fishing industry, called a total moratorium on crab harvests draconian, unnecessary and unsupported by science.

"The moratorium that New Jersey has is unnecessary ... Delaware is taking a more targeted approach by protecting females throughout the year, while letting us take a minuscule fraction of the male stock -- which has no impact on reproduction of crabs," said Rick Robins of the Virginia-based Chesapeake Bay Packing Co.
New Jersey adopted a bill in March banning crab harvests on the New Jersey side of the bay, essentially killing a small industry involving about 38 fishermen. New Jersey biologists, and others who study migrating birds, contend that the bay hosts the largest breeding population of the crabs in the world.

While the crab numbers have increased since both federal and state restrictions on over-harvesting were imposed in 1996, the number of eggs they leave on the bay beaches each spring remains low, biologists contend.

The eggs provide a crucial meal for many species of migrating birds each spring, particularly the red knots as they make a trek from wintering grounds in South America to return to Arctic regions to reproduce. Scientists contend the birds are not finding enough eggs, and that the red knots are not building up enough reserves in the bay to successfully fly north, mate and reproduce.
The Delaware court did not delve into the issues of whether crab harvests are having a detrimental impact on egg production, and ultimately an impact on red knots. The court simply refused to permit the American Littoral Society, which is based in Sandy Hook, as well as New Jersey Audubon, Delaware Audubon and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network from continuing a battle lost by Delaware environmental officials in 2006.

That is when the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control imposed a crab harvest moratorium, only to find it overturned by a state court when fishermen filed a lawsuit claiming the measure was not supported by scientific evidence.

Delaware environmental officials then adopted a male-only annual harvest of 100,000. The Supreme Court, in its ruling, said action by the state rendered moot the court dispute and the appeal filed by environmentalists.