Bob Gordon

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senators Joseph F. Vitale and Bob Gordon to impose a moratorium on the taking of horseshoe crabs to protect the food supply for the endangered red knot shorebird was approved today by the Senate by a vote of 39-0, receiving final legislative approval.

“Years of poor environmental planning and overfishing have decimated the red knot population and driven this bird to the brink of extinction,” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex. “New Jersey has an opportunity to do the right thing in restoring a centuries-old balance on the food chain between these shorebirds and the horseshoe crab. We must give Nature a chance to re-establish the natural order, and allow the red knot to come back from the verge of annihilation.”

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senators Joseph F. Vitale and Bob Gordon to impose a moratorium on the taking of horseshoe crabs to protect food supply for the endangered red knot shorebird was unanimously approved by the Senate Environment Committee today.

“We have a sacred obligation to preserve the centuries-old natural relationship between horseshoe crabs and the red knot, a migratory shorebird that’s on the verge of extinction,” said Senator Vitale, D-Middlesex. “This is an opportunity to repair the damage due to over-fishing of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay in the 1990s, which has interfered with the food chain and put the red knot at risk. We need to continue the horseshoe crab moratorium instituted by the State DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) in 2006 to preserve the food supply and reverse the steady decline of one of the great migratory shorebirds.”