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Horseshoe crabs are currently threatened by escalating human stresses along the Indo-Pacific coastline. Conservation of their remaining populations, however, is hindered by limited baselines throughout their ranges. We performed a questionnaire survey of conservation experts from diverse geographic regions to identify baselines, prominent threats, impediments and alternative strategies that prioritize Asian horseshoe crab conservation. Despite long-term monitoring across habitat types is lacking, local population declines were widely perceived. Ongoing residential/commercial development along the coast was regarded as the most serious threat. A combination of top-down institutional management and bottom-up stakeholder participation was cited as the most promising strategy. Population and habitat baseline collections should be prioritized in future research to inform conservation planning. In this paper …