Horseshoe Crab

Fishery
Horseshoe crab are used as bait to fish for eels (mostly in the United States) and whelk. However, fishing horseshoe crab is temporarily forbidden in New Jersey (moratorium on harvesting) and restricted to only males in Delaware. A permanent moratorium is in effect in South Carolina.
It is hypothesized that low horseshoe crab populations in the Delaware Bay endangers the future of the red knot. Red knots are long distance migratory shorebirds that feed on the protein-rich eggs during their stopover on the beaches of New Jersey and Delaware. There is an ongoing effort to develop adaptive management plans to regulate horseshoe crab harvests in the Bay in a way that protects migrating shorebirds.