There’s something here in this neck of the woods that’s happening soon and has got everyone talkin’. Magazine articles are being written about it and the throwaway papers here at the beach, The Wave and The Beachcomber are even talkin’ about it. I overheard two ladies at the grocery store talking about their plans to help so this is Big Doin’s here. I had to find out more.
It seems that any day now the Horseshoe Crabs are going to show up for spawning. The Delaware Bay is the largest spawning ground for the ancient Atlantic horseshoe crab that can be traced all the way back for 445 million years!
For thousands of years, during the months of May and June, these sea creatures will creep out of the ocean onto the bay beaches to lay millions of eggs. This usually occurs during the new and full moon phases when the tides are the highest. During the peak, (mid-90’s)the horseshoe population of about 3 million crabs would come ashore. I have lived in Delaware all my life and yes, of course, I knew that the horseshoe crabs came ashore because we see their carcasses on the beach every once in awhile. It’s just something you walk around during your stroll on the beach. I had no idea so many of them came here to lay eggs.
Delaware allows 100,000 male (only) crabs to be harvested. Some are used as bait for eel and conch pots and more surprisingly, at least to me, their blood is useful in the biomedical industry. Their blood is extracted and then they are released back into the water.
Since the population has dwindled over the years harvesting is now limited to 600,000 crabs for the entire Atlantic coast. Yes, the horseshoe crab population is making a comeback but now it faces another problem. Habitat loss. Development of the shoreline and the climate change-induced sea level rise spell problems for the horseshoe crab.
Why are horseshoe crabs in everyone’s thoughts right now? Because the time when the horseshoe crabs come in to lay their eggs coincides with the migration of the Red Knot.
I was simply amazed when I learned what this little bird does. Every year the American species of the Red Knot makes one of the longest migrations known in nature. This little bird spends its winters on the southern tip of South America and migrates to its breeding grounds in the ARTIC CIRCLE. NINE THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED miles! 9,300 miles! One way! AND…at the end of summer, it flies back. Now think about this. Last year when Bob I left Arizona in April, we drove to Alaska and back with lots of driving without the rig in between and we ONLY put on 14,011 miles! These teeny, tiny little birds are going flap those teeny, tiny little wings a total of 18,600 miles in approximately the same amount of time, or maybe even less, that we did. Is nature amazing or what?
So why do they come here? Horseshoe crab eggs! They come for the abundance of fat rich and protein rich, easily digested horseshoe crab eggs.
They arrive here emaciated and exhausted and during the two weeks that they spend here on the Delaware coast their weight triples as they gorge themselves on these eggs.
At the height of spawning season, in a typical 11,000 square foot area of sand along the bay, eggs number between 10,000 and 50,000. However, the beach at Mispillion Harbor, where the Mispillion River reaches the bay is the epicenter of the horseshoe crab spawning and therefore the epicenter for Red Knot feasting! In this area that same 11,000 square foot area of beach sand will hold 500,000 eggs! Can you imagine the frenzy of thousands of birds all eating at once?
Scientists who watch the spectacle from boats have determined that the Delaware Bay beaches are the last stop that the birds make before they head to the Arctic. One of the bird observers said, “You can really tell a difference in how the birds look. When they get here they are really skinny. By the end of their stay, they are sumo wrestler fat, so fat that they are just kind of waddling around.”
Just like the horseshoe crab population has dwindled, so has the Red Knot. Twenty years ago 150,000 of these little birds would stop along the bay during their spring migration. Today that number is around 20,000. They are now on the Endangered Species list and rightly so.
Every year volunteers join the scientists to count the birds and the horseshoe crabs. In addition, some of the birds are banded for future studies and tracking. Last fall, scientists along the St. Lawrence River near the U.S.-Canada border spotted a a female red knot that was still wearing the lime green colored band that was put on her leg in 1997. Think about that for a minute. From the time that band was put on, that little bird has made 12 round trip flights from the the tip of South America to the Arctic Circle. That adds up to more than 223,000 miles! Put those miles in a straight line and you talking about the distance from the earth almost to the moon. I will never ever complain about the 16 mile roundtrip from Arizona City to Casa Grande to go grocery shopping again!
Volunteer opportunities are still open for the counting and I have contacted the head of the horseshoe count to get info on how to help.
After doing the research on this topic I have come to realize that you don’t have to travel to foreign places like Africa or other exotic lands to find the wonders of nature, no siree, they are right here in our own backyards, you just have to look around.
I hope you enjoyed learning a little about Delaware’s own bit of amazing nature.
3 comments:
That was interesting. I remember coming to Delaware when my brother was stationed at Dover & seeing those ugly horseshoe crabs! My sister wouldn't get off my brother-in-law's shoulders in the water!
Very interesting. We see Horseshoe crabs here in Florida all the time, but never realized how important their eggs were to birds.
That was very interesting! I hope you get the opportunity to volunteer. That means more really cool pictures.
Post a Comment