Science and Conservation of Asian Horseshoe Crabs Workshop

Building on the success of the 2007 International Symposium on the Science and Conservation of Horseshoe Crabs held at Dowling College, New York, USA, a second International Workshop on the Science and Conservation of Asian Horseshoe Crabs has been organized in Hong Kong.

Asian horseshoe crabs represent an urgent conservation challenge. The status of horseshoe crabs in Asia is uncertain due to sparse data, but it is clear that there are multiple stressors that have caused declines in virtually all populations. Thus, there is an acute and urgent need for a conservation strategy focused on Asian species that will help guide scientific and conservation agendas into the future. Given this limited, but challenging objective, we have organized a workshop to develop a conservation strategy for Asian horseshoe crabs.

This 4-day workshop will focus on thematic topics of Populations, Habitats, Exploitation, and Public Consensus. The workshop program will mix capstone oral presentations addressing current knowledge and state-of-the-science methods, poster presentations, and breakout sessions to develop and begin to write the conservation strategy. The program includes a balance of Asian and North American scientists and conservationists who can contribute to one or more of the workshop themes.

This workshop is organized by the Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, in collaboration with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and Hong Kong Wetland Park, Hong Kong SAR Government. Funding support is obtained from the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong.