Is this year different?  Yes, because the birds that did come to the stopover left early and in good condition.  Most knots left by May 26, a good omen for this year’s production.  ¨ Unfortunately, it is also different because we saw 8,000 fewer knots than last year and half of what we saw in 2018 and 2019.  

In the last few days, during the full moon spring tide, horseshoe crabs carpeted the beaches of the lower Cape. 

Resisting this tide of unreality underscores the urgent need for sensible conservation efforts to stop the never-ending killing of horseshoe crabs.

The short answer is it is too early to tell, but one thing is clear: this year will likely differ from all the previous years of our 27 years of research and protection. 

In the 1970s and 80s, most of the horseshoe crab largess floated into the sea or remained buried in the sand. The excess surface eggs that will never hatch and the newly hatched young provided an ecological cornucopia of resources underpinning finfish productivity. It’s no accident that when Karen Williams measured 100,000 eggs/square meter, Fortescue called itself “The Weakfish Capital of the World.” It only makes sense.

The number of red knots and turnstones in NJ this year gave our team a much-needed boost. The birds came back! But hidden in these numbers are a few thorny questions.

On May 22, we completed the first boat and ground count of NJ beaches, and the count topped last year’s by at least 8000 knots, coming in at 22,107 red knots. In 2019 we counted over 30,000  red knots, but after the bay’s crab spawn failed to materialize in May 2020, the number crashed to 19,000, then to a disastrous 6000 in 2021.  Last year the knot numbers bumped to 12,000, giving us hope for the stopover.  The increase to 24,000 is good news that tells us a lot.

After surveying the coast from Dennis Creek to Bidwells Creek, we finished our count. We found another 600 knots and a similar number of turnstones. From Fortescue to Bidwells, we counted 3974 red knots, 3740 ruddy turnstones, and about 500 sanderlings.