A Case for Restoring the Horseshoe Crabs of Delaware Bay
In 1991 Mark Botton and Bob Loveland conducted a survey of horseshoe crab eggs lying on the surface of the beaches along the lower Delaware Bay. At the time horseshoe crabs spawned throughout the Bayshore, in great numbers in all tides. Botton and Loveland measured egg densities as high as 100,000 eggs/square meter. One could find windrows of eggs washed in piles on beaches like Reeds Beach. Now barely a then of that remains In 1990 Botton and Loveland measured egg densities of 100,000 eggs/square meter – now barely of tenth of that remain Large portions of 6 Arctic nesting shorebird species…
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