04/01/99

Board Approves Addendum I to the Horseshoe Crab FMP

Alexandria, Virginia – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Horseshoe Crab Management Board today approved Addendum I to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe Crab, which implements harvest reduction measures along the Atlantic coast for the commercial horseshoe crab bait fishery. Specifically, the Addendum establishes a state-by-state cap at 25 percent below 1995–1997 levels of 2,999,491 horseshoe crabs for all states. Individual state horseshoe crab fisheries would be closed once its cap is reached. Read more »

10/28/99

Oil Spill Response Contingency Planning

Delaware: ERDG has helped wildlife rehabilitators, industry, and state and federal agencies develop response equipment, processes, and protocols to prevent or mitigate impact to wildlife from oil spills. Our years of experience in oiled wildlife incident response, research, and development are particularly relevant to our horseshoe crab shorebird conservation initiatives. Many of the world’s remaining horseshoe crab spawning sites and migratory shorebird stop-overs are vulnerable to the effects of oil contamination.

The Delaware Bay, the second-largest oil-shipping channel in the United States, is home to the world’s largest concentration of horseshoe crabs. The Bay is also a vital rest and refueling stop for hundreds of thousands of migrating North American shorebirds. The effects of an oil spill in this body of water during spring shorebird migration and horseshoe crab spawning could be devastating.

In 1999, ERDG introduced governmental agencies responsible for oil spill contingency planning in the mid-Atlantic region to the importance of developing protocols to protect or mitigate damage to the Atlantic horseshoe crab species, Limulus polyphemus. Now in place, these plans complement existing protocols designed to protect migrating shorebirds in the Delaware Bay.

10/19/99

ERDG Completes Phase I of its Bait Bag Initiative

Bait Bags and Alternative Bait

Earlier this month, at an alternative bait workshop hosted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), ERDG offered to manufacture and distribute a particular type of bait bag being successfully used by Frank Eicherly IV a Milford, Delaware, conch fisherman. Conch fishermen indicate that the use of bait bags could reduce the demand for horseshoe crabs for bait by as much as 50 percent. Read more »

10/05/99

Alternative Bait Workshop (Minutes )

The Ecological Research & Development Group (ERDG), offers to manufacture and distribute a particular type of bait bag being successfully used by Frank Eicherly IV a Milford, Delaware, conch fisherman. Download the pdf.

06/18/99

ERDG’s Just flip ’em! Horseshoe Crab Conservation Program

Delaware: The Ecological Research & Development Group of Milton, Delaware launched a successful Just flip ‘em! Horseshoe crab conservation program last year to bring attention to the high mortality from horseshoe crab strandings and to encourage individual support for the preservation of these ancient mariners. download the pdf.