New Jersey officials, meanwhile, have extended that state's existing two-year harvest ban.
Conservation groups have urged strict limits on horseshoe crab harvests to protect the food supply for migratory shorebirds that feed on crab eggs as the pass through Delaware Bay.
New studies have found evidence of a shortage of horseshoe crab eggs, but an increase in the population.
Studies of the density of horseshoe crab eggs indicate a shortage of eggs; and a draft trawling survey that shows an increase in the horseshoe crab population in Delaware Bay.
