Help save the Red Knots from Extinction

The following is a plea from Maya K van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper:

On May 30th, I joined scientists from the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Service and bird experts from as far as Australia to monitor the red knots arriving on our Delaware Bay shores to feed on horseshoe crab eggs.

Choppy turbid water, and an already low population of horseshoe crabs due to bait harvest, made egg densities on the New Jersey shore “abysmal.” Scientists leading the bird study dug in the sand, but found only a few green horseshoe crab eggs.

The birds were searching the beaches and struggling to find the protein rich eggs that they rely on to bulk up to continue their journey to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. The terrible impact of this scarcity of eggs was made clear when I found that most of the 70 red knots I weighed that day were sadly underweight. Time is quickly running out for this species. We need your help now more than ever to speak for these beautiful birds. Please take a few minutes to write a letter to help us protect them.

Some background info:

Historically the horseshoe crabs of Delaware Bay have been over-harvested. The result is that while today we arguably have a stable population of horseshoe crabs in the Bay, that population is at such a low level that the crabs are unable to lay enough eggs to sustain the spring migration of the red knot rufa. Scientists have said that without strong measures to ensure as many crabs as possible are left on the beaches the red knot rufa may go extinct by the year 2010 or shortly thereafter.

Rather than put in place a moratorium on the bait harvest of horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay as a group of international experts have called for and defended using all available science, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is once again planning to pass a rule that would allow continued harvesting of the horseshoe crabs. New Jersey has put in place a moratorium on the bait harvest in the Bay, but Delaware has not, and so ASMFC regulations are critical for ensuring baywide protections for the crab.

Your letter is crucial to show ASMFC and the governors of our region that the community demands they take the action needed to protect the horseshoe crabs, the migrating shorebirds, and the $34 million dollar ecotourism business dependent upon them.

So please, send your letter by July 18th at 5pm to:
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Attn. Braddock Spear
1444 Eye Street, Northwest

Washington, DC 20005

Or email your comments with the subject line “horseshoe crab” to:
comments@asmfc.org

Or fax your comments, Attn. Braddock Spear, to:
(202) 289-6051

And be sure to cc:
Delaware Riverkeeper Maya K van Rossum,
300 Pond St, 2nd Floor
Bristol, PA 19007

Here is a SAMPLE LETTER that you may copy and paste:

Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Attn. Braddock Spear
1444 ‘Eye' Street, Northwest
Washington, DC 20005

(Your Home Address)

(Date) – letters need to be received by July 18th, 2008

Dear Mr. Spear:
As a member of the Delaware Bay and River community, I urge you to put in place the greatest level of protection for the horseshoe crabs and the migrating shorebirds which means a full moratorium on the harvest of horseshoe crabs that live and originate in Delaware Bay.

The ASMFC has been charged by the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Horseshoe crabs approved in 1998 to manage the horseshoe crab population for current and future generations including for migratory shorebirds. Any protections short of this moratorium fail to fulfill the ASMFC mandate to protect the horseshoe crabs for all.

There is no science to support even a male only harvest - in fact the scientists studying this issue have given every reason to believe that this approach too puts at risk the goal of increasing the crab population, egg availability, and the migrating shorebird populations dependent upon them.

Ecotourism in the bay, as birders from around the world flock to the Delaware Bay to see the shorebirds coming in to feed and rest along the shores and wetlands of our region is a 34 million dollar a year industry. If the birds are gone, this business will disappear.
The world is watching, if the Red Knot rufa goes extinct the fault will lie squarely on your conscience.

I look forward to hearing what your plan is to protect these species of the Delaware Bay.

Sincerely,

Signature and Name

cc. Governor Ruth Ann Minner
Tatnall Building
William Penn Street, 2nd Fl.
Dover, DE 19901 (302) 744-4101
Fax: (302) 739-2775

Want to do even more for the red knot?

• Encourage your friends and neighbors to write letters by July 18th

• Or come out to the public hearing on the proposed rulemaking scheduled for Dover, DE on July 16th beginning at 5:30pm.

For more information and factsheets on the plight of the red knot rufa and the horseshoe crabs, visit: www.delawareriverkeeper.org and click on take action.

Posted by Joyce, Best Friends NE Team Leader.