SOURCE:
By Edwin Viera - October 8, 2025
New York environmental advocates want Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill protecting horseshoe crabs.
The legislation would allow the Department of Environmental Conservation to regulate the management of horseshoe crabs and prohibit taking them for commercial and biomedical uses. Before her death, Jane Goodall is among the many conservationists who sent letters to Hochul, urging her to sign the bill.
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said the species is subject to overfishing.
“Commercial fishermen in New York State have permits to harvest a total of 150,000 horseshoe crabs from our waters,” Esposito pointed out. “What they do with them is chop them up and use them for bait to catch whelk and eel.”
She added it is ironic, since eels need the horseshoe crab eggs to survive. The blood of horseshoe crabs is also used for testing some vaccines and medical apparatus but medical companies can also use a synthetic substance. New Jersey and Connecticut both signed legislation protecting this species in 2008 and 2023, respectively.
Esposito noted the bill has been well received by the public and lawmakers. It is the second time the Legislature has passed it, although it has been introduced in some form in every session since 2009. Hochul vetoed it last year, citing state data saying there is no decline in horseshoe crab populations. Esposito countered it is incorrect.
“A new study just came out last month by independent academics in the University of Connecticut, the Norwalk Aquarium and other entities, that documented, using DEC data, a between 2% and 9% decrease in the population of horseshoe crabs in the Long Island Sound,” Esposito reported.
The study described horseshoe crabs as “functionally extinct” in Long Island Sound, meaning they no longer play an effective role in the ecosystem, which affects numerous other species, including the threatened red knot shorebird.