September 8, 2014 — Horseshoe crabs in Wellfleet Harbor will get sonic transmitters next spring to help figure out the right balance between commercial harvesting and conservation.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary received the $50,000 grant in July so that in May researchers can start to track 100 of the harbor's resident horseshoe crabs.
The sanctuary has done annual horseshoe crab spawning surveys since 1999 as part of a statewide effort but questions about the harbor's total crab population continue.
Anecdotal evidence shows the number is declining, potentially from commercial harvesting, according to the sanctuary's science coordinator, Mark Faherty, and other local shellfish experts.
In Wellfleet Harbor, the crabs traditionally have been harvested in May, June and July, usually by hand from boats, to be sold as bait to conch and eel fishermen.
This summer, though, there were no commercial crab boats harvesting in the harbor, Wellfleet Harbormaster Michael Flanagan said Thursday. The one regular crab harvester from last year, out of Chatham, changed this summer to another type of fishing because of the complexities of the regulations, Flanagan said.
Nonetheless, representatives of the town's $3 million shellfish industry say the crabs need to be protected in their natural habitat because they are valuable for aerating the soil and eating shellfish predators such as worms.
"Wellfleet is not a big player in the horseshoe crab harvest," town Shellfish Advisory Board Chairman Barbara Austin said. "But what they are harvesting, it's making a big dent."
The crabs are an important part of the ecosystem, Austin and town Shellfish Constable Andrew Koch said.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times