A tagged horseshoe crab was discovered at Flying Point in Southampton by photographer and resident Danny Sit at the end of April this year. The photo was sent to Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program’s Matt Sclafani, Marine Educator.
Jennifer Lander of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and a biologist with the Marine Invertebrates, Salvage, and Cartilaginous (MISC) Unit wrote:
“It’s exciting to see the first recapture of the season! From our database, tag ID 476140 was tagged 5/28/2022 at Pikes Beach. Also, at the time of the tagging the HSC had 26-50% shell coverage.”
The Trustees volunteer to collect data provided to Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program. The information includes counting the number of spawning pairs, single crabs, males, females, measurement of crabs, and photographs.
For more information about the annual horseshoe crab monitoring program and protocols during spawning season, click on the link below.
May 7-8, 2024: The monitoring event started at 10:30 PM at low tide at Northwest Harbor and concluded at approximately 12:10 AM. The following photographs are a sampling of the horseshoe crabs spawning and one previously tagged and recorded with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (.gov) (https://www.fws.gov). In total, we counted 205 horseshoe crabs.
