Environmental groups want New Jersey regulators to clarify if a biomedical company is violating the state’s moratorium on harvesting horseshoe crabs.
New Jersey prohibited most collections of horseshoe crabs in the state in 2008. While companies are still allowed to extract crab blood for biomedical purposes — commonly to test for toxins in vaccines and other devices — the law requires that the crabs are returned to the water “otherwise unharmed.”
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition Tuesday asking the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to issue a declaratory ruling on whether the biomedical company Limuli Laboratories broke the law by killing and injuring horseshoe crabs in the process of blood extraction.
“On paper, New Jersey is one of the best state protectors of horseshoe crabs, but look under the hood and you’ll find it’s actually allowing a company to kill and injure horseshoe crabs in huge numbers,” said Danny Waltz, a senior attorney at CBD.
