Horseshoe Crab Research Center provides information to improve management
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Fishermen catch horseshoe crabs for use as bait in the lucrative eel and conch fishery. Biomedical companies catch and bleed horseshoe crabs to produce a chemical (LAL) used to detect the presence of bacteria in injectable drugs and implantable devices. Environmentalists are concerned because migratory shorebirds depend on horseshoe crab eggs to fuel their migration to their arctic breeding grounds each year. Now, Virginia Tech has a Horseshoe Crab Research Center (HCRC) to provide information necessary to improve the management of this important species. With more than 200 adult crabs, it is the largest captive system in the nation.
"Over
the past several years, management of the horseshoe crab population has become
increasingly controversial," says center director Jim Berkson. "The battle
over this ecologically, economically, and medically essential species has
become one of the most heated environmental issues on the east coast in recent
years."
The HCRC was founded in the belief that developing effective management strategies requires an understanding of all three dimensions of the horseshoe crab issue: fisheries, shorebirds, and biomedical companies. The HCRC combines facilities and expertise from Virginia Tech's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Conservation Management Institute, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.
Already the HCRC is doing research funded by BioWhittaker Inc; Virginia Sea Grant, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. For example,
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HCRC researchers are designing coastwide trawl surveys that could be used to track population changes over time. This research was considered the most important horseshoe crab research by the Horseshoe Crab Technical Committee of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC).
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Researchers are testing the feasibility of flying over spawning beaches using video cameras with nightscopes to index the number of spawning horseshoe crabs in the spring. If feasible this technique could supplement time consuming, manpower intensive beach surveys that have proven less than reliable over time.
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Researchers are estimating the survival rates of horseshoe crabs after the biomedical industry's bleeding process. It was not known whether the bleeding process causes large numbers of mortalities or not. Scientists are studying the relationship between the percentage of blood extracted per horseshoe crab to the likelihood of mortality in the animal. The goal is to develop guides so that biomedical companies would limit the amount of blood extracted to reduce mortality rates in the bleeding process.
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Horseshoe crabs are being tagged and released annually to provide information on movement patterns and the distribution of the horseshoe crab population.
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Researchers are analyzing the sex and age composition of the catch of horseshoe crabs, providing information needed for effective horseshoe crab management.
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HCRC researchers are also looking at the relationship of the horseshoe crab to other species, such as scorpions, blue crabs, and lobsters, using new, advanced techniques.
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Researchers are also looking at the potential of culturing the cells that produce LAL. If possible, this could eliminate the need to catch horseshoe crabs for bleeding by the biomedical industry.
Research being developed includes studies on shorebird-horseshoe crab interactions and horseshoe crab telemetry. Genetic studies are being developed by the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute.
Berkson, assistant professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, also serves on the Stock Assessment Subcommittee of ASMFC's Horseshoe Crab Technical Committee. Berkson's expertise is in fisheries stock assessment, wildlife and fisheries management, and conservation biology. Berkson is the lead editor of a new book, Incorporating Uncertainty into Fishery Models, being published by the American Fisheries Society. He is also vice chair of the Science and Statistics Committee of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, Berkson worked for a number of state, federal, and tribal fisheries management agencies in the U.S. and Canada. For 10 years, he served as a technical advisor to the U.S. State Department for international negotiations on salmon management.
Stephen Smith, associate professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine and a HRCC co-founder, does the biomedical research. His expertise in aquatic medicine, immunology, histology, and aquaculture gives the HCRC the leadership needed to study the biomedical aspects of the issue.
Jim Fraser, professor of fisheries and wildlife sciences, provides expertise on shorebirds, applying his years of work on shorebird ecology to the issues involving shorebird-horseshoe crab interactions.
The center will work towards developing management that will lead to a sustainable supply of horseshoe crabs for shorebirds, fishermen, and the biomedical industry. For further information, see: www.fw.vt.edu/berkson/berkson.htm or contact Dr. Berkson, 540-231-5910, jberkson@vt.edu
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