Every year for the last 22 years a team of scientists has studied shorebirds and horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay. The restoration of beaches continued this year so horseshoe crab found good spawning conditions. As in previous years, most of the red knots on the bay in the stopover used the restored beaches in NJ. We still confront the lack of any restoration of the female crab population in Delaware Bay. Egg densities remain at 1/4 the carrying capacity. There should be more crabs, but the agencies will not stop bycatch, unnecessary mortality by biomedical companies taking blood from crabs and illegal harvests. The good and bad balanced and the shorebirds left in moderate condition,
With large tides and tidal marsh, Delaware Bay should be producing abundant fish. Serial overfishing, marsh destruction, and careless management ruined the fishery and the productive base on which it relied.