Recently released was the Rufa Red Knot Delaware Bay Annual Report for 2025, compiled with the cooperation of the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife. Of particular concern is the percentage of red knots observed on the Delaware side of the bay. The ground count for 2025 was 0.2% of the Delaware Bay total. This represents the low point of the recent four-year average of 1.25%. Clearly, red knots are avoiding the Delaware side of the bay, a striking reversal from pre-2000 when nearly two-thirds of Delaware Bay red knots were observed in Delaware. The dynamic of Delaware Bay has clearly changed since then.
The decline of the red knot population in Delaware is symptomatic of larger problems affecting the Delaware coastline. In an attempt to understand what is occurring, Sen. Eric Buckson is convening a meeting of DNREC officials, legislators and environmentalists to discuss apparent problems and to propose possible solutions.
One suspected cause of the red knot decline in Delaware is the state's ongoing harvest of horseshoe crabs. Prior to 2008, horseshoe crabs were collected with few restrictions on both sides of the bay. New Jersey ended the practice in 2008 when it implemented a moratorium.
We urge Delaware to follow New Jersey's lead.
Delaware has never had an interruption of its horseshoe crab harvest. Instead, it relies on recommendations from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and its Adaptive Resource Management mathematical model. That model consistently asserts that the horseshoe crab population in Delaware Bay is fine, justifying continuing harvests. However, those recommendations ignore real-life conditions on the Delaware shoreline, including a near absence of surface horseshoe crab eggs on the beach and the resulting disappearance of the red knot.
Following New Jersey's lead, Connecticut and New York have prohibited the harvest of horseshoe crabs. Once the premier red knot stopover in the United States, Delaware remains a holdout.
Since the official migratory bird of Delaware is now a rarity in the state, members of the Senate Environment, Energy & Transportation Committee and the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee have been invited to participate on a field trip to New Jersey during the peak shorebird stopover this spring. Guides from New Jersey will escort the group to the locations where red knots are expected to concentrate the day of the trip. It will be an opportunity for Delaware lawmakers to see firsthand what New Jersey is doing right.
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