five new paths to conservation on delaware bay

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

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

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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.

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.

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.

Light sensitive geolocator aretiny 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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

How Could this happen?

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

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

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

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

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

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

This worked well until the 1970’s than broad- based conservation was derrailed

*Pushing them into the extended arms of extreme right - Only 18 Percent US Gun Owners Are Hunters

Anti-sportsmen activists have sidelined sportsmen’s broader conservation by forcing them to defend hunting and fishing

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

Divisive Issues neutralize Conservationists

•animal rights•feral cat management•anti-hunting •anti-trapping

And wildlife have no effective voice

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?

A New Approach to ConservationLed 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



• Don’t Tolerate Hunting, Endorse It!• remove the need for hunters to focus on the right

to hunt • Rebuild a new powerbase of conservationists



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 residentsCreate the political power to force action



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



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

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 before

Moores Beach afterMoores Beach after

Kimbles Beach before

Kimbles Beach after

This Beaches were ruined by Sandy but the degradation of bay beaches has been going on for years. We restored 5 beaches –on budget, on-

time and successfully - our beaches outperformed control and Unrestored Beaches: More birds and crabs…

Moores Beach before


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


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.

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.

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Thank You

five new paths to conservation on delaware bay

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