Horseshoe Crab Tagging - 2021 Season
The WaterFront Center is excited to be returning (safely) to the New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network for the 2021 tagging season, this is our 9th year participating. Participants assist with the collection of scientific data that is used to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in New York State and will help determine the management and conservation of this important species throughout the region. Due to COVID-19, the number of volunteers will be limited and all participants must pre-register by contacting our site coordinator and confirm prior to the scheduled survey date. Volunteers who do not schedule their session with our site coordinator will not be permitted to participate.
All volunteers must complete and submit the required Volunteer Health Screening and Attestation Form to the site coordinator prior to monitoring. UNREGISTERED ATTENDEES & WALK-UPs will not be allowed to PARTICIPATE!
Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program and Stony Brook University, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) have been working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to develop and organize this project to collect spawning data for helping scientists learn more about the Horseshoe crab on various reference beaches throughout New York’s Marine District.
Participants assist with the collection of scientific data that is used to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in New York State and will help determine the management and conservation of this important species throughout the region. If you participate in this educational survey you will be helping to collect data on horseshoe crab spawning abundance, size, sex, and tag returns around full and new moon evenings from May to July. Trained site coordinators will be present to educate and teach you about the survey.
The Horseshoe crab is not presently endangered, but harvesting and habitat destruction have reduced its numbers at some locations and caused some concern for this animal's future. Since the 1970s, the Horseshoe crab population has been decreasing in some areas, due to several factors, including the use of the crab as bait in eel, whelk, and conch trapping.
The goal of this project to understand more about the horseshoe crabs’ life cycle and have a better understanding of their population around Long Island Sound. With the cold and icy winter behind us, scientists were interested in how abundant the crabs would be when they arrived for the spawning season. Some scientists hypothesize that water temperature is the main triggering factor in telling the animals when to start the mating process. So, with the cold water and air temperatures, we saw this spring no one really knew what to expect. Horseshoe crabs also enjoy calm waters with little or no wind action. Too much wind and the shore bottom become quite turbulent and disrupt their mating patterns.
We need as many volunteers as possible for the tagging season to be a complete success. If you are interested in assisting the study, please contact our Education Director, Cameron Jenness (Cameron@theWaterFrontCenter.org).
