horseshoe crabs on delaware bay

greg setter

greg setter

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Every year the horseshoe crabs come to mate and lay eggs on Delaware Bay. The eggs that they lay bring hordes of shore birds for the feast, many of which travel thousands of miles each year on their migration. I took a ride in my duck boat last Monday afternoon for something to do. The crabs were everywhere.
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They climb all over each other to get to the best spots.

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And the birds are not far. I watched them running around on the mud flats pecking away at the eggs.

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Check out the bird in the background of the picture above and below. It was one very sharp looking avian. Maybe somebody here knows what it is?

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I tried to get a better close up of this dude, but he started to move and was pretty quick, and that and the rocking of the boat did not allow me a clear photo. There is always something going on in the salt marsh, no matter the season, and it is always with a specific purpose.

View attachment more crabs and birds.JPG
 
Thanks for this post, Greg. Wonderful pictures. It seems to me that a while back Bev and I watched a documentary about horseshoe crabs. They said they were on the decline. Are things better for them now if that was so?
Al
 
This is one of nature neatest spectacles. Crab numbers are up this year as well as Red knots. The knots are heading to their northern breeding grounds now, but preliminary count for this year show about 26,000 birds. Up about 10,000 from last year.

Here is a cool story about the oldest Red knot on record. Has made the journey at least 20 X. Almost enough to fly to the moon and back again!

http://www.app.com/article/20120530/NJNEWS/305300091/-Moonbird-returns-Delaware-Bay
 
This is one of nature neatest spectacles. Crab numbers are up this year as well as Red knots. The knots are heading to their northern breeding grounds now, but preliminary count for this year show about 26,000 birds. Up about 10,000 from last year.

Here is a cool story about the oldest Red knot on record. Has made the journey at least 20 X. Almost enough to fly to the moon and back again!

http://www.app.com/...returns-Delaware-Bay

Jode,
Thanks so much. That is truly amazing about this one particular bird that they dubbed Moonbird!
Al
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for posting. Reminds me of being a kid, weekend trips on our sailboat a Dickerson 36 on the Chesapeake Bay. Fascinating creatures, very prehistoric looking.
 
Phil-thanks for the bird ID

Al-they stopped allowing the taking of horseshoe crabs a few years ago. Horseshoe crabs were a very popular bait for pretty much anything you use a trap to catch-crabs, whelks(like a conch), minnows, eels. Today they are caught and kept alive, and one of the pharmaceutical companies(I can't remember which one) withdraws a little bit of blood and then they are released back into the bay. Their blood is very valuable in the manufacture of some drugs and cannot be artificially replicated.

You can find them just about anywhere, but the numbers in Delaware Bay far surpass anywhere else.
 
Not to upset anyone, but many many years ago when I potted eels on Long Island commercially, horseshoe crabs were the number one bait. I can remember nearly sinking the garvey with them, then penning them up for the season. Those were the good days, now I hear you can't harvest them any longer. Any way great pics, thanks....
 
I was born and raised in south jersey and have strong ties and feelings for the Delaware Bay - you're not upsetting me.
Commercial eelman, or any other fisherman that utilize(d) the crabs, did not ruin the status of the horseshoe crab...
Like many things in nature, it was the change in habitat.... make that - the loss of habitat, that has had the biggest effect on the population.
Just in my relatively short lifespan, there has been a tremendous loss of sand beaches along the bay.... natural erosion from storms, erosion caused by boat traffic, siltation from freshwater run-off, loss of vegetation - both on land and in the water..... hell, even damage caused by the huge wintering greater snow goose population.
The loss of the gentle sloping sand beaches that the crabs need to have to make landfall and have the right conditions to mate and lay eggs is the biggest reason for the major decline in crab numbers.
Unfortunately, the control on harvest is the only thing that the state can do without investing considerable time and money to correct the damage.
 
On Cape Cod there is a commercial season for horseshoe crabs. Not sure what the limits are, but I know there is a company on the Cape that buys them. The blood of the horseshoe crab, I believe is obtained and utilized as an anticoagulant (sp?) for humans. Not sure how the population is holding up, but if there is no obvious shortage of them on Cape Cod!

The season is now or just ending. Quite a few of my commercial fishing friends start their season out with Horseshoe crabs, then go to groundfish (black seabass, etc), then Striped Bass and of course Bluefin tuna..

Jim O
 
Greg

Both American Golden Plover and Black-bellied Plover look very similar and from your picture it is hard to tell which one it is. Black-bellied would be way more common and expected in NJ this time of year, and the bird does seem to have a pretty big bill and is large compared to the foreground sandpipers (which are field characteristics of Black-bellied). If you have any better pictures perhaps you could post them up. Also, some better pictures of those Sandpipers in front would be cool. They appear to be semipalmated sandpipers
 
Andy-thanks for that. I wish I was a better photographer, that's all I have. Next trip out I will try and get some more. I bet you would enjoy an outing in those marshes, sounds like you know your birds pretty good. I know that there are quite a number of different shorebirds in the area.
 
Next to waterfowl I find shorebirds most interesting. I did my Masters on woodcock habitat preferences. Ever time I visit coastal areas I am always reminded how productive those coastal marshes and estuaries are by the sheer number organisms. Got to hunt the Texas coast last year and beyond the thousands of redheads, etc. there were just tons of shorebirds, gulls, and terns. Even when we weren't shooting there was something to watch. The nice thing about shorebirds in terms of picture taking is they are relatively tame and allow you to get pretty close to them (I was about five yards away from some Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers last week).
 
Andy, is prob right. just checked audabam site. Golden Plover spoted in Brigatine. They say its very rare for NJ in the spring. I grew up on the /Shrewsbury river and horseshoe crabs were everywhere. Just don't see them anymore in the #s. Someones coment about the sandy structure of the shore makes sense, Everything is bulkheaded and the marsh in front of it and beaches have been eroded or dredged. They are prehistoric looking.

Phil
 
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