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State Issues
Horseshoe Crab
New Jersey was the first state to implement regulations to protect the horseshoe crabs and migratory shorebirds, starting on May 30, 1997 with Governor Whitman's 60-day moratorium on harvesting horseshoe crabs from Delaware Bay. Below are sites that will give you more information about NJ's efforts.
New Jersey Audubon -- particularly the Cape May Bird Observatory, good folks to talk to about horseshoe crabs in New Jersey
New Jersey Division of Fish, Game, and Wildlife -- Bureau of Marine Fisheries
Here is the press release from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection when Gov. Whitman announced NJ's regulations to protect horseshoe crabs and shorebirds, after the moratorium expired.
This is National Audubon's press release supporting Gov. Whitman's regulations.
Here is a Trenton Times editorial and NJ Audubon response from June 1997, about Gov. Whitman's actions to protect horseshoe crabs.
Here is the Audubon Advisory article from August 1, 1997 announcing Gov. Whitman's extended horseshoe crab regulations.
Here is the Audubon Advisory article from October 10, 1997 announcing National Audubon's lawsuit against the NJ Marine Fisheries Council, and the Advisory article from 2 weeks later announcing its settlement.
For more information, contact Perry Plumart. This site, "The Horseshoe Crab Crisis", from the Delaware Bay homepage gives a chronology of New Jersey's relationship with horseshoe crabs.
Here are New Jersey's horseshoe crab harvest regulations, as of 1999. Horseshoe crabs can only be harvested by hand; trawling and dredging are banned.