Wildlife work during a pandemic
Death and suffering spread across our land, the fear of contagion invading all aspects of our daily life. All-day long, the pandemic finds its way into every thought, both inconsequential, should I get a cup of coffee and drink from the cup and the consequential, will this 68-year-old body make it through the year? All of us face difficult choices struggling to balance the need to stay safe and to make a living or at least continue the meaningful actions that give life purpose.
The virus practically wrecked the study of wildlife and their protection. Not only have restrictions ended most fieldwork for now, but COVID 19 has plundered the purpose. Why protect wildlife at all? Isn’t compassion wasted on wildlife, when so many of the people in our lives have suffered directly from the disease or indirectly from the impact on our economy? Why help wild animals and the land on which they depend, when all the effort in the world won’t be enough to help people in need?
Red knot and ruddy turnstones fly onto a Delaware Bay beach. ( photo by Jan van der Kam from the book Life on Delaware Bay)
23rd year of work or the end?
And so begins our 23rd year of studying horseshoe crabs and shorebirds on Delaware Bay, probably one of the longest-running studies of wildlife in the US. A lot has changed over the last few months. Like tossing out the contents of a rapidly declining airplane, we passed on survey work in Brazil this year after passing on work in Tierra del Fuego Chile earlier. Lockdowns whittled away the Delaware Bay team, first the people from other countries, then the people from other states. NJ state COVID 19 regulations forbade the use of volunteers in-state projects. Now we are a team of 8 people to do some portion of the work done by 30 people.
But our biggest problem is not a lack of personnel to do the work. We can do some part of the regular routine and still accomplish most of the goals. We may not be able to trap, tag, measure, and resight all species we have in the past, but we can still do enough to assess the health of the red knot population, and the Bay stopover. In other words, we can collect data on the key metrics and accomplish the goals of our project in the new COVID 19 reality we face.
Should we do the work?
The bigger problem comes with the obvious question – should we do it at all?
Yes, we will follow all precautions in conducting the work. We will not violate social distancing rules. We will follow facemask and hand sanitation guidelines to the letter. We will alter our approach to accommodates all these precautions. This week we went over our preparations with Dr. Mitesh Desai of the Center for Disease Control ( thanks to the volunteered efforts of Dr. Joel Feigin and Marsha Hyslop of the 2.MD outreach program of United Healthcare). We have also made it clear to all our small team that they can leave at any point in the work if they feel threatened in any way or cannot adhere to a strict protocol.
Still, the big question remains. Why take any risk when the primary outcome is only numbers on a spreadsheet? We won’t solve the problem these animals face but only continue the effort to solve them. So why take the risk for so small an outcome? How do you answer that question without tempting fate?
Our compassion and a sense of purpose provide value and justification, but that only comes after we finish the work. Even that accomplishment pales when staring at the creaky bulwark that now stands between natural wealth and the schemers ready to steal it—modest achievements to be sure.
COVID forces a realist perspective
COVID forces the larger realist view. At this time in human history, all conservation is a rearguard action. Wildlife and wildland win sometimes but mostly lose. And COVID will only make it worse. Now the greedy will call it a mission to step on the natural world. Even before the pandemic, only a few recognize the need for functioning ecosystems to perpetuate natural wealth. How can you catch big weakfish in Delaware Bay when agencies allow the destruction of forage fish like menhaden on which weakfish depend? Will people ever wake up to this craziness? Not anytime soon.
I think about the people I know who do other work and think life would improve if they could do more work like ours. But for most conservationists, the destruction we see everyday glows like blood lite by chemiluminescence at a crime scene. When Mandy and I drive through the verdant farmland of my home in Cumberland County NJ, we struggle to focus on the forest with infinite shades of green or the joyful sprouts of newly planted crops and not the creeping and unchecked contagion of invasive plants that can slowly claw down whole trees or the sprawling deathly pallor of a field sprayed with Round-Up, knowing it’s fouling our waters.
Working under the restrictions of COVID 19
What does anyone say when compelled to go to work under the restrictions and threat of COVID 19? I just can’t answer this question without tempting fate. I guess its enough to say it’s my job, and it helps give meaning to life when life swerves into something new and unknown. Maybe its the only way to stay sane.
Working on wildlife is like working with children in an impoverished community. Yes, the teacher does good and deserves to feel good, but she must also feel the pain of seeing a child suffer mistreatment or desperate circumstances with little ability to do anything about it. In the same way, we follow. It’s only the path we chose in life, and like so many others, we must go back to work.
But if we do it we will play our part in helping our world get back to a new normal. Doctors warn the virus will be with us for a long time. Economists tell us our economy and our lives will never go back to where we started. But at some point, we must rebuild our world into something better.
Beginning with a heavy burden
And so we begin this year’s project with this heavy burden. The virus precautions and restrictions have decimated our team and pervades every single action. We are down to 8 people. Mandy Alindi, Stephanie, and I are doing the trapping and whatever else. Theo and John doing resights along with Jeannine, Steve, Ren, and a few others all working independently. Mike and Katherine are doing egg counts. As it stands I hope we will still gather enough data to do the P180, population estimates, ground /boat counts, and egg densities, all the main metrics of our projects.
All the beaches have been fenced and have stewards full of enthusiasm. Once the weather warms we expect more than the usual number of people so the stewards will help people trying to find a place to recreate without stopping shorebirds from getting horseshoe crab eggs. It works more easily than it sounds because shorebirds unmolested by people intent on sharing iPhone photos will feed right up to the protected area boundaries, so anyone can have an iPhone moment
Jim McClain is one of the many stewards in Conserve Wildife Foundation of NJ’s program to protect beaches from disturbance and teach visitors about the need for protection
Jeannine Parvin resights flagged red knots at cooks beach
A tough start for the birds and crabs
Both birds and crabs faced their own difficulties. The water temperature in the bay hovers at 54 degrees, 6 degrees less than that necessary to create a good spawn. The full moon went by with only a light spawn. Add to that we’ve had ferocious winds for the last week, all west and against the shore. Together the temperature and waves have stopped spawning dead.
For example, I was watching the shoreline at north cooks inside the creek just at high. The inner creek was calm even though there was a 20-knot wind pounding the shore. In a place where hundreds of horseshoe crabs normally concentrate, not one crab spawned.
Water temperature on Delaware Bay measured at the Cape May Bouy. Temperature should reach 59 degrees F for a robust spawn of horseshoe crabs
In the recce this morning we counted about 500 knots and about 1000 turnstones. 5000 knots were seen north of the stone harbor bridge two days ago, but we have yet to relocate them. 2500 knots were sighted at Cooks beach on Friday last week. Most have dispersed or left the NJ Bayshore looking for eggs.
The next 6 days promise warm and windless days, so we expect birds to return and more to come.
