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Some researchers from Sacred Heart University are concerned that this harvesting is causing declining numbers in Long Island Sound. This year, Connecticut is coordinating with several other states on a census that will help track, and potentially save, the population. WNPR's Catie Talarski reports
Dr. Jennifer MatteiIf you call Dr. Jennifer Mattei at her office and she doesnt pick up... there's a good chance she's out in the field.
"If you've found a horsehoe crab please tell me the tag number, the beach and city where you found it, and whether it was dead or alive. Thank you."
Today Mattei's at Sandy Point in New Haven - and she's found herself a live one.
"This is a male. 116545. The width is 21"
The shelled creature is actually more closely related to a spider or a scorpion than a crab. It looks like a mini brown tank with a long straight tail. The species is four hundred million years old. They've lived through an ice age - and the extinction of dinosaurs. They have benefits to human health as well.
"The blood products that they harvest from Horseshoe Crabs are used to test vaccines for bacterial toxins."
The one that Mattei's holding has a white circular disk attached to the shell, with a number she can track to find out
Tagging a Horseshoe Crab where and when it was first tagged . With the help of volunteers, 20,000 have been tagged since Mattei started ten years ago. Concerned about declining numbers of horseshoe crabs, this year she's joined forces with several other states to do a census.
"People who've lived here all their lives say when they were small children they would see thousands of them. Now they don't see as many and people are asking, 'Is the population in decline? Are we going to lose the species in Long Island Sound?'"
Already the state Department of Environmental Protection has designated Sandy Point a "no harvest zone". Harvesting is the main threat to the horseshoe crab population - but water pollution and human impact on breeding beaches are other causes for concern.
..."Lay out ten meters of rope - count how many are in a 3 by 5 meter plot."
Scientists and volunteers conduct the census
Mattei's leading a team of volunteers on one of twenty such counts happening right now - in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
"Ok our start time, 12:16PM. In the first plot there's a single male."
Mostly what they're finding are males - and that's a cause for concern. Females lay about eighty thousand eggs during a summer - and more than a million in their lifetime. They bury the green beebee-sized eggs in the sand. And at least ten different types of shore birds rely on these eggs for food
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Twelve miles down the coast is the Connecticut Audubon Society - at Milford Point. The beach is a protected wildlife area and another horseshoe crab "no harvest zone". It has a large area roped off to protect nesting shore birds.
Piping Plover"There's a baby piping plover thirty feet from us. It looks like a cotton ball with feet. They are so cute."
Frank Gallo is Associate Director of Coastal Education at the Audubon Society. He leans on his high tech birding binoculars. This beach, he says, is a major stopping place for migrant birds. Many of which time their migration to the horse shoe crab breeding season - like the Red Knot, whose population went from 200,000 to only 13,000 in the last six years. Gallo attributes this loss to over harvesting of horseshoe crabs - leaving fewer eggs for the birds to eat.
"If you come here and you've just done 6,000 miles and you're out of gas, you may or may not be able to travel to the next closest beach."
"Last year at this spot where we're standing there were hundreds of horseshoe crabs... more than we could ever count. 
Frank Gallo, Dr. Beekey and a student at Milford Point This year, theres barely any."
Dr. Mark Beekey has been working on this project for the past three years with Dr. Mattei. At the end of the first mating season - they've noticed fewer females in the count, and a large variation in where the horseshoe crabs are laying their eggs year after year.
An official report will be released after two more years of the census - but Dr. Mattei says more than two "no harvest zones" might be needed to preserve the genetic diversity of the population within the sound - and that the areas that are open to harvest should be male only.
Dr. Mark Beekey
Links:
Project Limulus at Sacred Heart University
