Surveyors Needed to Identify Horseshoe Crab Spawning Sites

North Hempstead, NY – The Town of North Hempstead and Supervisor Judi Bosworth announced that Molloy College’s Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring (CERCOM) is looking for volunteers to help with its annual horseshoe crab survey, going on now. Participants will help identify active horseshoe crab spawning sites, as well as those which have become inactive.

These surveys are essential to learning more about horseshoe crabs on Long Island, since their numbers are decreasing. CERCOM is looking for volunteers to be citizen scientists in the North Hempstead area to survey gently sloping local beaches that have sandy (not rocky) sediment. No prior experience is necessary. Beaches should be surveyed within 2 hours of high tide (2 hours before or 2 hours after) around the following spring tide dates:

The protocols for volunteers as well as tide times can be found on the CERCOM at Molloy webpage:
https://www.molloy.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/biology/cercom/horseshoe-crab-monitoring-protocol

Please contact Dr. John Tanacredi at jtanacredi@molloy.edu for more specific information on how you can contribute to this important study.