Massachusetts sets bio

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has rolled out new regulations for the state’s horseshoe crab fishery that include a first-ever biomedical harvest quota.

BOSTON — They’re prized by the biomedical community for their life-saving blue blood, but the increasing demand for horseshoe crabs is raising concerns about the well-being of the prehistoric species, prompting state regulators to set new harvesting limits.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) has rolled out new regulations for the state’s horseshoe crab fishery that include a first-ever biomedical harvest quota.

Under the regulations, the biomedical catch quota would be set at 200,000 horseshoe crabs annually, and will be divided evenly among the handful of Massachusetts companies that process their blood for biomedical research and drug development.

“Capping total horseshoe crab harvest and mortality is the single most important conservation measure the state can take this year,” DMF said in a statement on the new regulations. “This eliminates the potential for uncontrolled growth in the biomedical fishery which could negatively impact the resource moving forward.”

The new catch quota is slightly higher than the previous year, but fisheries regulators say that will be offset by reducing the amount of horseshoe crabs that can be harvested by commercial fisherman for use as bait. The bait catch cap will reduced by 25,000 crabs to 140,000 annually, regulators said.

Earlier in July, members of the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission voted unanimously to reduce the daily horseshoe crab bait fishery trip limit for mobile gear fishers for the rest of the year.

Beginning July 11, the limited access horseshoe crab trip limit for mobile gear fishers will be reduced from 300 horseshoe crabs to 200 horseshoe crabs, while the open access trip limit will be reduced from 75 horseshoe crabs to 50 horseshoe crabs, the agency said.

“This action is designed to slow the consumption of the remaining bait quota to avoid an early season closure that may result in regulatory discarding in mixed species mobile gear fisheries,” the agency said.

As of mid-July, the horseshoe crab fishery has taken more than 80 percent of its 2023 bait quota of 140,000 horseshoe crabs, according to agency data.

Horseshoe crabs — which are more closely related to spiders and scorpions than crabs — have been crawling along the sea floor hundreds of millions of years, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. They are also an important part of the coastal ecosystem with their eggs a primary source of food for migratory birds.

In the 1970s, researchers discovered that the murky blue blood inside horseshoe crabs clots when it detected bacterial toxins. The discovery led to the development of a toxin-detection system that is used to determine if vaccines, drugs and medical devices are sterile before they’re put inside people.

To extract the blood, harvesters collect tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs every year and bring them to laboratories where they are bled and later return to the sea. The blood is coveted for proteins that can be used to screen medical products for bacteria, such as vaccines and new medicines.

While synthetic alternatives have been developed, they haven’t yet been approved by the federal government for widespread use, which means horseshoe crabs are currently the only source of the blood-derived ingredients.

In recent years, there use by the biomedical industry has increased dramatically amid demand for the development of new vaccines, including COVID-19 disease.

More than 700,000 crabs were brought into research facilities in 2021, the highest number ever, and that has more than doubled in recent years, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Experts say the demand has placed a strain on the species, which was exacerbated by the pandemic where there was a increased need for toxin detections in vaccine development.

A spokeswoman for Charles River Labs, one of two companies that harvest blood from horseshoe crabs on Cape Cod, wouldn’t comment on the new regulations but said the company “partners closely” with fisheries regulators to support a sustainable crab population.

“We will continue to work with federal, state and local wildlife and resource management agencies to balance humanity’s need for this valuable resource with the need to protect the crabs that provide it,” Sam Jorgensen said in a statement.

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