The conservation of Delaware Bay wildlife and habitats is an enigma to most people. Conservationists through the years have taken a broad stroke approach, buying land primarily, with little regard for the unintended consequences which can be overcome. Now we are left with a perfect opportunity to create new conservation efforts resting on the success of earlier efforts.
In the 1970s and 80s, most of the horseshoe crab largess floated into the sea or remained buried in the sand. The excess surface eggs that will never hatch and the newly hatched young provided an ecological cornucopia of resources underpinning finfish productivity. It’s no accident that when Karen Williams measured 100,000 eggs/square meter, Fortescue called itself “The Weakfish Capital of the World.” It only makes sense.