Horseshoe Crab Monitoring

Welcome to the Long Island horseshoe crab volunteer monitoring network. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program is helping to develop this network through funding provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC). Our goals are to annually monitor spawning horseshoe crabs at various beaches throughout Long Island so that we can gain a better understanding of their abundance and distribution in the New York Marine District.

Your help with this project will enable us to reach our goals of developing reliable sampling methods for data collection, and to acquire biological information on horseshoe crabs at various Long Island beaches. This data will be used by the NYS DEC to assess the status of horseshoe crabs in the New York marine district and assist with the management and conservation of this important species.

By participating in this survey, you will be helping to collect data on spawning abundance, size, sex and tag returns around full and new moon events from May to July. Trained site coordinators will be present to teach you how to help with the survey, however, it is important that you take the time to read through the horseshoe crab spawning survey protocol beforehand. By doing so, you will be better prepared and help make the survey run efficiently. You must also fill out the Volunteer Agreement form. Thanks for your interest in being a part of this important research.

CCE has developed an entire website dedicated to this project. For more information please click here: http://www.nyhorseshoecrab.org/