Interested in taking action to protect horseshoe crabs in Massachusetts? Migrating shorebirds depend on their eggs for critical migration fuel and there are multiple ways you can get involved as a concerned citizen:
Take action today!
– Share comments on a current proposal to list the Horseshoe Crab as a Species of Special Concern
Comments are due by April 23rd at 5pm and may be sent via email to susan.sacco@mass.gov to the attention of the Fisheries and Wildlife Board
– Participate in the proposal to close Plymouth, Kingston, and Duxbury Bays to the Horseshoe Crab Take
Contact the Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance (contact: Sharl Heller)
Ways to get involved:
– Massachusetts Horseshoe Crab Collaborative
Visit their website to learn more and join over 2,000 Massachusetts residents who have gone on record as wanting an end to taking horseshoe crabs for bait, even as they come ashore to spawn. Also visit their facebook page or contact Sharl Heller at the Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance.
– Manomet
See their website and examples of their critical work with horseshoe crabs. Volunteer, make a donation, and more.
– Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition
Visit their website to learn more and take action.
Resources to learn more: (curated by the MA Horseshoe Crab Collaborative)
– When the Horseshoe Crabs are Gone, We’ll Be in Trouble. Deborah Cramer, The New York Times.
– Horseshoe crabs have roamed the planet for 450 million years, but they could be running out of time, Renée Loth, Boston Globe.
– The Horseshoe Crab Saved Us. Can We Save the Horseshoe Crab? I am BIO Podcast.
– Connecticut’s 2023 elimination of horseshoe crab commercial harvests and Governor Lamont’s call for neighboring states “to join this growing coalition and enact similar laws to protect the population in their waters.”
– Fishermen capturing spawning horseshoe crabs—Horseshoe Crab Capture: Video by Raymond MacDonald.
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The Brookline Bird Club (BBC) recorded 283 species for 2024, with 274 species in Massachusetts (four more than 2023), and nine additional species reported from New Hampshire and Maine. This total was based upon 262 [...]
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BBC Global Big Day Count – May 10
BBC Global Big Day Count On May 18, 1974 Bob Stymiest led the BBC trip with the all time largest species count for the club - 162 birds seen during 20 hours across Essex County. [...]
Camp Edwards Grassland Bird Tours
The Massachusetts Army National Guard’s Natural Resource Program is hosting grassland bird tours in May on Camp Edwards. This is an unusual opportunity for avid birders, naturalists and photographers to walk through the Camp Edwards [...]
2025 BBC Teen Birder Scholarship Awards
2025 BBC Teen Birder Scholarship Awards The BBC Conservation and Education Committee is pleased to announce our two annual Bill Drummond Young Birder Scholarship recipients, Sydney Beard of Cambridge and Jonas Johnson of Canaan, CT. [...]
US Fish & Wildlife Service Major Staff Cuts
According to the National Wildlife Refuge Association, “The intentional dismantling of science and conservation is happening now. Hundreds of dedicated U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services employees—many of them biologists—have been fired, gutting an [...]
2024 Annual Report
The Brookline Bird Club (BBC) recorded 283 species for 2024, with 274 species in Massachusetts (four more than 2023), and nine additional species reported from New Hampshire and Maine. This total was based upon 262 [...]
April 25 Annual Members Meeting – All Welcome
April 25 Annual Members Meeting - All Welcome Please join us on April 25 for our Annual Members Meeting. The evening begins with a social hour at 6:30. The program starts at 7:00 with the [...]
BBC Global Big Day Count – May 10
BBC Global Big Day Count On May 18, 1974 Bob Stymiest led the BBC trip with the all time largest species count for the club - 162 birds seen during 20 hours across Essex County. [...]
Camp Edwards Grassland Bird Tours
The Massachusetts Army National Guard’s Natural Resource Program is hosting grassland bird tours in May on Camp Edwards. This is an unusual opportunity for avid birders, naturalists and photographers to walk through the Camp Edwards [...]
2025 BBC Teen Birder Scholarship Awards
2025 BBC Teen Birder Scholarship Awards The BBC Conservation and Education Committee is pleased to announce our two annual Bill Drummond Young Birder Scholarship recipients, Sydney Beard of Cambridge and Jonas Johnson of Canaan, CT. [...]
US Fish & Wildlife Service Major Staff Cuts
According to the National Wildlife Refuge Association, “The intentional dismantling of science and conservation is happening now. Hundreds of dedicated U. S. Fish and Wildlife Services employees—many of them biologists—have been fired, gutting an [...]
2024 Annual Report
The Brookline Bird Club (BBC) recorded 283 species for 2024, with 274 species in Massachusetts (four more than 2023), and nine additional species reported from New Hampshire and Maine. This total was based upon 262 [...]
April 25 Annual Members Meeting – All Welcome
April 25 Annual Members Meeting - All Welcome Please join us on April 25 for our Annual Members Meeting. The evening begins with a social hour at 6:30. The program starts at 7:00 with the [...]
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Upcoming Field Trips
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