Council Endorses N.J. Crabbing Moratorium
By Sandy Bauers, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Mar. 8–After last month’s veto of an open-ended ban on harvesting horseshoe crabs — a move biologists say is crucial to a migratory shorebird’s survival — the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Council this week endorsed a one-year moratorium.
The action was essentially meaningless because the council has authority only to veto rules proposed by the state; it cannot initiate.
Nevertheless, with the advisory council now on record supporting a one-year harvesting ban; the executive branch pushing for a long-term moratorium; and the Legislature considering bills that would do the same, it now appears likely that the red knots will get some relief.
A Senate committee hearing is scheduled on Monday.
Environmentalists and bird biologists have sought crabbing limits to help the bird, which flies from the tip of South America to the Arctic every spring and stops on Delaware Bay to refuel on crab eggs just as the crabs come ashore to spawn.
Heavy crab harvests in the 1990s led to a reduction in the number of crabs, and the birds have declined as well. Biologists say they could be extinct in a few years.
A previous two-year moratorium has expired, and officials want to have new measures in place before spring.
In December, the state Department of Environmental Protection proposed an open-ended moratorium.
The fisheries council vetoed it on a 5-4 vote in February. Council member Erling Berg, a retired commercial fisherman who sided with the majority, said he’d been concerned that “when you put something in with no sunset, you never see it again.”
Environmentalists immediately vowed to fight. Within two weeks, bills were introduced in both houses of the state Legislature.
They call for a continuing moratorium until the red knot population has recovered or until the adoption of a fisheries management plan that guarantees more than enough eggs for the birds.
Responding to the legislation, the council voted unanimously on Thursday for a one-year ban. “We are saying to the commissioner: ‘This is what we like,’ ” said council member Edward L. Goldman. “And she can say no.”
Indeed, Deputy Commissioner John S. Watson Jr. said yesterday that the DEP would not support the one-year ban.
He said Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson would continue to seek a longer moratorium.
While the agency was still looking at the council’s proposal, Watson said, under the legislation “the reopening of the harvest will be based on the recovery of the species. That’s our goal.”
Advocates are pushing for passage before the Legislature’s recess later this month.
Berg, the council member, said the issue did not belong in the Legislature. Thursday’s vote, he said yesterday, was intended to return control of the fishery to the council, “which is where it belongs.”
Environmentalists yesterday dismissed the action.
In politics, said Eric Stiles, a New Jersey Audubon vice president, “there’s no such thing as a do-over.”
All the proposed limits trump the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which allows a males-only harvest of 100,000 crabs a year. States may pass more restrictive measures.
The Atlantic States’ limit does apply to Delaware, which had a moratorium that was overturned in court.
Contact staff writer Sandy Bauers at 215-854-5147 or sbauers@phillynews.com.
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