Each year, Massachusetts anglers are permitted to kill, chop up and use 140,000 horseshoe crabs as bait. The already-steeply declining horseshoe crabs—who are already designated as “functionally extinct”—are being severely jeopardized by this reckless practice.

The good news is, hope remains for these 450-million-year-old mariners: H.898 – An Act to End the Use of Horseshoe Crabs for Bait – is included on the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources’ docket for its public hearing Tuesday, October 21 at 1:00 PM.

In 2024, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries issued 185 Horseshoe Crab Bait permits. The agency’s data reveals that 40 fishers participated, killing 140,170 horseshoe crabs and earning a total of $280,000, which means they’re pushing horseshoe crabs to extinction for a measly $7,000 each.

As much is confirmed by a letter in the August 2025 Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission meeting materials, where a bait dealer raised the concerns of “economic inefficiency, unnecessary mortality and biological waste” in using horseshoe crabs as bait.

Horseshoe crabs take 11 years to mature, and their populations are declining in most of all the spawning sites observed in Massachusetts—from 2022-23, researchers compared the female density at 15 spawning sites across the state, where 13 sites saw a decline and the remaining two were found to be “indeterminable.”

The low numbers of horseshoe crabs are leading to a steep decline and possible extinction of other species, such as the threatened red knot, a shorebird who depends on horseshoe crab eggs for food to fuel its epic biannual flights between the southern tip of South America and the Arctic.

The red knot needs horseshoe crab eggs to fuel its roughly 9000-mile-long migratory journey, and has seen over an 80% decline in its population since 1980.

Without sufficient horseshoe crab eggs to feed on, migratory birds run out of energy and die before reaching their breeding grounds. Horseshoe crabs are also an important source of food for other wildlife such as sea turtles, and species such as anemones, barnacles, oysters and seaweed use horseshoe crab shells as homes.

Horseshoe crabs depend on us all to safeguard their future.

To submit written testimony, you’ll need a free account with MyLegislature. Testimony must be submitted by Tuesday Oct. 21 at 5:00 PM.