MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Far from the ocean beaches that were lavished with money and attention after the devastation of Superstorm Sandy is the other Jersey shore.
The Delaware Bay beaches are not nearly as famous or as heavily populated, but they could help keep a tiny shorebird from becoming extinct.
A massive project to restore five bayfront beaches has been completed just before the second summer after the storm arrives — and, with it, thousands of red knots and the horseshoe crabs whose eggs they eat on a stopover from their annual 10,000-mile journey from South America to the Arctic.
The Delaware Bay area is home to the largest population of horseshoe crabs in the world, according to Larry Niles, a wildlife biologist working on the project. And because the crabs lay their eggs in the sandy beaches here, the area is the main stopover for red knots, a shorebird listed as endangered in New Jersey and proposed for listing as such with the federal government.
But when Sandy roared through on Oct. 29, 2012, the beaches were devastated, and 70 percent of breeding areas, coves and shoals were lost — not to mention the damage inflicted on waterfront homes.
All that needed to be fixed as quickly as possible.
"There were two main goals: to get good spawning grounds for the horseshoe crabs and to make sure there were sufficient horseshoe crab eggs so that when the shorebirds make their long trip up from South America, they have sufficient food reserves to make it all the way to the Arctic," said Eric Schrading, a supervisor with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "This is an absolutely critical spot for a host of shorebirds, including the red knot."
The red knot's numbers have declined by 80 percent since 2000, he said. There are about 35,000 left in the world. Other species that depend on the crab eggs include the ruddy turnstone and the short-billed dowitcher.
