The red knot, a threatened shorebird that migrates via the bay's beaches, was protected by a ban on harvesting female horseshoe crabs.
Next year's crab catch by the fishing industry in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia will be set by the board at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
A plan that would have allowed the industry to catch about 150,000 female crabs in 2023 was rejected.
The plan was attacked by environmentalists who argued that it would further reduce food for the red knot and other shorebirds that rely on the bay's crab eggs to complete a long-distance flight each spring.
The birds' population is under pressure from the biomedical industry which uses an extract of crab blood to detectbacteria in medical products and takes blood from an undisclosed number of Delaware Bay crabs each year Although crabs are returned to the water after being bled, some die or are unable to breed, which contributes to the decreasing food supply for shorebirds.
In the early 2000s, the knot population plummeted due to an over-harvest of horseshoe crabs. The number of birds fell to a record low of 6,880 in the year 2021.
The commission used a model-based method for population counts and estimated that the knot population was stable at around 45,000.
The board dropped its plan to restart the female harvest because it wanted to balance the needs of the bay and the fishing industry.
The commission said that the board decided to implement a zero female horseshoe crab harvest for the 2023 season as a conservative measure because of public concern about the red knot population.
The commission said that the bay's population of female crabs had more than doubled to about 11 million. The commission argued that the planned catch of female crabs would not damage crabs or birds.
The board set a harvest limit of 475,000 male-only horseshoe crabs for the 2023 season, after recognizing the birdsdependence on crab eggs.
The commission listened to the public and did not authorize a harvest that would endanger the red knot, said Ben Levitan, an attorney for Earthjustice.
If the commission revisits the female harvest, Mr. Levitan wants the details of the computer modeling to be made public.
He said that the commission should allow full public involvement and respond to scientific criticisms before any harvest expansion is considered.
Christian Hunt of the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife said that allowing female crabs to be harvest again would accelerate the path toward extinction. Red knots rely on horseshoe crab eggs to migrate. There will be less birds with fewer eggs.
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