Red Knot and Horseshoe Crabs

Denise Sheehan Commissioner New York Department of Environmental Conservation I am writing asking you to support a two-year moratorium on the taking of female horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay, as New York State is a member of of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, your state has the ability to help save the vanishing shorebird, the Red Knot, by supporting the horseshoe crab moratorium. Defenders and other conservation groups have been urging state fisheries officials to halt the harvesting of horseshoe crabs.
It seems a shame, horseshoe crabs, which I grew-up watching on the sand flats of the West Meadow Beach on Long Island, NY, descended from trilobites, one of our oldest "living fossils" are harvested for their clear blood. Their blood is unique in that in the presence of any bacterial contamination it "clouds up". Used in the medical field to test and detect the efficiency of sterilization procedures in equipment cleaned for operations, it seems a shame, that the bloods use, which in this modern world of organic chemistry, should and can be replaced, will have this consequence and perhaps other consequences in the natural world (i.e., young birds eat mosquito larvae in Alaska, holding insect populations down). The horseshoe crab is relied upon by the Red Knot bird, which increases its weight twofold in the consumption of the fatty eggs of the horseshoe crab while making its way up the flight-way along the East Coast to the Arctic. It will become extinct due to the over-? of the horseshoe crab, by as early as 2010 say experts.
Please join the call for a moratorium of two years on the taking of female horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay.
Sincerely, George J. Myers, Jr. BA Anthropology
The Red Knot's Fate is at Stake
This unique shorebird is in grave danger, but your state officials can help save it. You can help by attending an important public hearing.
When: Wednesday, March 29, 2006; 7:00 PM Where: New York Department of Environmental Control , Bureau of Marine Resources Headquarters, 205 North Belle Mead Road, East Setauket, New York
Inquiries: Kim McKown; (631) 444-0454