1) Arctic nesting shorebird populations are declining rapidly due to loss of stopover habitat and food sources at key migration sites like Delaware Bay. 2) Overharvest of horseshoe crabs, which shorebirds rely on for food during migration, has led to collapse of the Delaware Bay stopover ecosystem. 3) Conservation efforts are needed to protect shorebirds and horseshoe crab populations, including regulating fisheries and restoring coastal habitats.

1. Arctic Nesting Shorebirds Are Declining
Fast –What Conservationists Can Do And
Why You Need To Do It
Larry Niles PhD Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ

2. Outline
• Elegance in Nature – the yearly dance
of shorebird and horseshoe crabs on
Delaware Bay
• Unraveling the knot: The collapse of
the Delaware Bay stopover, the rise of
the new market hunters
• déjà vu all over again – the collapse of
game populations in the 30’s and the
rise of American Conservationists
• A new era of conservation – a
progressive agenda

3. •
•WI
Delaware Bay supports the largest population of breeding horseshoe crabs
in the world. Horseshoe crabs breed in densities so dense that when they
dig to lay their eggs they bring previously laid eggs to the surface, where
birds can eat them.
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•-
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4. These dense eggs are fat-rich and easily
available to shorebirds arriving to the bay
from South American wintering sites. They
will fuel the flight to the Arctic breeding
grounds with these eggs.

5. Compare the fat red knot with the skinny bird. In june, when this was
taken, the skinning bird will have no chance of breeding and could die
on the way to the Arctic. (Clip from Crash: A tale of two species, an
episode of PBS Nature.

6. Light sensitive geolocator are
tiny devices that record light
levels and time thus allowing an
estimate of location using
techniques familiar to
navigators using sextants. With
them we have discovered new
migratory pathways and
uncovered previously unknown
behaviors

7. Map of bird YOY – making a 6 day non-stop flight across the Amazon
Basin and the Caribbean ultimately landing on the shores of Delaware
Bay

8. 8 red knots from
one flock were
instrumented with
Geolocators while
stopping over on
Monomoy USFWS
Refuge on Cape
Cod. They were
recaptured a year
later in one flock
on Monomoy, but
each bird had
spent the winter in
a different place
from Venezuela to
Maryland.

9. Red Knots seen on Padre Island TX were originally thought to be wintering in
South America, because none were seen wintering in TX. Data from
recovered geolocators first proved they wintered in TX, than in in Panama
and Mexico. These data also proved canutus rufa and canutus rosallarii red
knot, the east and west coast subspecies of red knot, both occurred in Texas.

10. These new data give voice to a complex and adaptive animal driven by courage
and determination to play out its purpose in life. The data also provides a
graphic reminder of how simple it would be to destroy this noble bird.

11. It took only a few years to overharvest horseshoe crabs because crabs need a long
time to recover from harvest. It take ten years for a crab to become a breeding adult.
The harvest was insignificant until the crab became a target for the industrialized
fishery of the mid-Atlantic. In 1994-95 the same fishery that destroyed the cod and
many other Atlantic Coast fish focused on horseshoe crabs

12. By 1998 the harvest has climbed from 100,000 to 2,500,000. In a few years the
industry had unwound the Delaware Bay stopover for which they felt no
responsibility. They’re goal was money

13. In the 12 years of the crab population’s decimation, short sighted exploitation
became the norm for Cape May Fishing Industry, their combined income
climbing 200%. This greedy and short sighted exploitation benefitted few
fishermen, most take home less pay than most Americans and die at faster
rates on the job.. The blood money went to businessmen and politicians, not
fishermen

14. The Agencies offered only industry favored solutions that left
little for the birds.

15. After 12 years of inadequate regulation, there is still no recovery of
horseshoe crabs, even for females, a group that should be
unharvested. The industry and agencies seem comfortable with
their recovery target of up to one hundred years!

16. The knot may not be able to wait that long. Now a candidate
for Federal Listing, the cost of restoring red knots will not fall
on the industry that caused the collapse
That will fall to bayshore and Atlantic Coast communities
that gained nothing from the over-exploitation.

17. How Could this happen?

18. Overharvest is the rule in industrialized fishery of Delaware
Bay - Atlantic Sturgeon once abundant on the bay are now
federally listed and the weakfish fisheries is virtually close
from overharvest

19. No longer satisfied with destroying the
predator fish the industry wants the prey
Menhaden (bunker)
exploitation is following the
same route as the horseshoe
crabs

20. Moreover Red Knots Represent A Much Larger Problem
– a result in our management of our coastal habitats
Climate Change, Poor Coastal Planning, Damaging Public
Use , poorly managed fisheries have led to a larger collapse
of most arctic nesting shorebird species like the red knot

21. A whole group of species is on the verge of collapse.
This has happened before!
During the early 1900’s game were market hunting and poorly
managed bringing many species to edge of extinction. Including
waterfowl and other migratory species

22. By the 1930’s, the problem of mismanagement and overharvest
kept waterfowl populations on the verge of collapse.
Waterfowl were saved by a political cartoonist Ding Darling and
other American Conservationists when they created a movement
that underpins game protection to this day

23. In the midst of the Depression they created the first Duck Stamp and
new hunting regulations and fees as well as taxes on all equipment
•
•
•
The funds still grow pumping
$700 million/year into habitat
conservation
Nearly 5,200,000 acres were
saved
Millions of registered
sportsmen in every state, fight
for the conservation of game

24. This worked well until the 1970’s than
broad- based conservation was derrailed
Anti-sportsmen activists
have sidelined sportsmen’s
broader conservation by
forcing them to defend
hunting and fishing
Pushing them into the
extended arms of
extreme right - Only
18 Percent US Gun
Owners Are Hunters
*

25. At the same time the people
who value birds do little to help
• 8 million people live in NJ
• 794k hunters and fishermen
– buy licenses, pay special taxes
– NJ Federation of Sportsmen represents
150,000 citizens
• 1.9 million wildlife watchers
– 605k leave home to pursue wildlife
– Only 30,000 member in NJ Audubon, the
largest group in NJ
– no licenses, permits or special taxes to
unite users or fund projects

26. Divisive Issues neutralize
Conservationists
•animal rights
•feral cat management
•anti-hunting
•anti-trapping
And wildlife have no effective voice

27. Left/Right Conservation
Conundrum
• The broader conservation championed by
liberals see it as the job of government
• But government agencies, primarily funded
by conservative leaning sportsmen, have
different priorities
• Current funding for government based
conservation is rapidly dwindling and
unlikely to return to historic levels.
What Can Be Done?

28. A New Approach to Conservation
Led by State coalitions of Conservationist
Five New Paths to Conservation
1. Re-unite conservationists by endorsing hunting and
fishing
2. Create a powerful new constituency with a state
birding stamp and taxed equipment
3. Use this new power to assert more control over
agencies and create new projects
4. Create new avenues for the public to experience
and handle wildlife directly
5. Create market friendly solutions to intractable
problems that create good paying jobs

29. A New Approach to Conservation
Led by State coalitions of Conservationist
Five New Paths to Conservation
• Don’t Tolerate Hunting, Endorse It!
• remove the need for hunters to focus on the right
to hunt
• Rebuild a new powerbase of conservationists

30. A New Approach to Conservation
Led by State coalitions of Conservationist
Five New Paths to Conservation
Build a Powerful Conservation
Constituency
•Every member of any conservation group
should enroll five new members
•Create a new social marketing program
dedicated to building membership in all
conservation groups to 1 in 5 of all
residents
Create the political power to force action

31. A New Approach to Conservation
Led by State coalitions of Conservationist
Five New Paths to Conservation
Create stable funding to create
reliable public private partnerships
•state conservation stamp for all
conservation lands
•a state tax on binoculars and cameras
With new consistent funding conservation
groups can join agencies in creating new
conservation programs

32. A New Approach to Conservation
Led by State coalitions of Conservationist
Five New Paths to Conservation
Solve Intractable Problems with New
Approaches that Involve Citizens
•Develop market based solutions to supplement or
replace existing projects.
•Embrace the needs of local people by creating good
paying jobs and embracing practical needs
•Tear down regulatory barriers for all people who
wish to participate in conservation
– Banding, collections, wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife
rescue, habitat restorations, wildlife population
restoration

33. Moores Beach before
Our restoration of
horseshoe crab
habitat on Delaware
Bay Beaches
destroyed by
Hurricane Sandy
provides a good
example of a project
that proved good
value, created well
paying jobs and met
the needs of citizens.
Moores Beach after
Kimbles Beach before
Kimbles Beach after

34. This Beaches were ruined by Sandy but the degradation of bay beaches
has been going on for years. We restored 5 beaches –on budget, ontime and successfully - our beaches outperformed control and
Unrestored Beaches: More birds and crabs…
Moores Beach before
Moores Beach afte

35. We thoroughly measured key metrics to evaluate our
project. These data will drive our approach in the next
phase of restoration.
Our goal is to create real and long
lasting value for wildlife
Moores Beach before
Moores Beach afte

36. 20 years ago the agencies added another coastal species,
the piping plover, to the endangered species list. It led
to conflict, huge costs to communities and little progress
– there are now less piping plovers in NJ than when it
was first listed.

37. The Red Knot gives the people who
value birds, a new opportunity to
test new and potentially more
effective forms of conservation. It
was done before, it can be done
again.
*
Thank You

38. LIFE ALONG
THE DELAWARE BAY
Cape May, Gateway to a Million Shorebirds
Lawrence Niles • Joanna Burger • Amanda Dey
Photography by Jan van de Kam
with contributions from Kevin Kalasz
Rivergate
•
David Mizrahi
Books
an Imprint of
R
utgers University Press
New Brunswick, New J
ersey, and London
•
Humphrey Sitters