CAPE MAY, N.J.— The Center for Biological Diversity and allies today petitioned a New Jersey agency to issue a declaratory ruling on a biomedical company’s persistent violation of the state’s moratorium on harvesting, killing and injuring horseshoe crabs.
“On paper, New Jersey is one of the best state protectors of horseshoe crabs, but look under the hood, and you’ll find it’s actually allowing a company to kill and injure horseshoe crabs in huge numbers,” said Danny Waltz, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “New Jersey must act quickly to fulfill the promise of its own laws and protect these highly imperiled animals and the endangered birds who depend on healthy crab populations.”
Through records requests made to the state, the conservation groups recently uncovered reports showing that Limuli Laboratories, a Cape May County biomedical company, annually injures thousands of horseshoe crabs as part of its collection of crabs to harvest their blood. Hundreds of these horseshoe crabs die. Limuli’s owner also publicly acknowledged that her company picks up horseshoe crabs by their telsons (tails), despite the scientific understanding that lifting crabs by their telsons can cause life-threatening harm.
Today’s petition asks the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to review Limuli’s activities under the state’s 2008 statutory moratorium on the harvesting of horseshoe crabs and issue a declaratory ruling as to whether Limuli is violating the law.
The moratorium generally prohibits all collection of horseshoe crabs, with an exception for capturing horseshoe crabs to harvest their blood for biomedical purposes. However, this exception requires the horseshoe crabs to be released “otherwise unharmed to the same waters from which they were collected.” The petition argues that the horseshoe crabs Limuli kills and injures are not released otherwise unharmed.