In our Spring Issue, Carl Safina, founder of the Blue Ocean Institute, Lazy Point resident and author of many books about the state of our oceans, wrote of a bourgeoning front in the war between making a living and maintaining the ecosystem. Many baymen on the East End, for generations, have been conch fishermen who bait their traps with horseshoe crabs. We profiled Pete Wencel two years ago; he has been a conch fisherman for more than 40 years and now works with his son. Wencel’s perspective on the horseshoe crab is 180 degrees from Safina’s. Wencel sat on an advisory board for a management plan by the DEC that placed caps on horseshoe crab landings. Safina would argue that that’s not enough. The search for balance continues.
