July on Jamaica Bay marsh islands is a busy time for its human and animal residents. People are hitting the beach to cool off, fishes are migrating, terrapins are busy laying their eggs on sandy berms, cow nose rays are flapping in the surf, horseshoe crabs are wrapping up their spawning activity, shorebirds are coming in to feed on horseshoe crab eggs, herons like Edgar the Egret are busy feeding their fluffy young, and of course Osprey parents are working very hard feeding their own fledglings, as they need to grow large enough to migrate with their parents South for the Fall. ​

What can you do about it? The best thing you can do is if you are spending time this summer on Jamaica Bay’s shores and beaches, if you see plastic trash, take the time to pick it up, and carry it out with you at the end of your day. Every little bit helps. If you bring plastic items that become trash later, then please carry them out with you, so that they don’t escape into our waterways to cause harm to our animal neighbors. ​

What is the Littoral Society doing about it? The Littoral Society has been coordinating, and hosting volunteer beach cleanups on New York’s shorelines and beaches since 1986! This year we are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of our beach cleanup program. Every year we gather volunteers to help us clean up our marsh islands, shorelines and beaches in Jamaica Bay, and across New York State. We also collect data on our removal efforts that we then report to the Ocean Conservancy who publishes this information into a massive global dataset! ​

​In Shark River, the data from the 2026 horseshoe crab season is in, and the results are exciting! Shark River is a unique location for horseshoe crabs to access and utilize. Compared to the open waters on Delaware Bay, horseshoe crabs must travel through a turbulent inlet to access the Shark River basin and are then met with a predominately hardened shoreline.

​Yet, many of the critical beaches on which spawning horseshoe crabs congregate each year are eroding, Kimbles included. And while erosion is natural along Delaware Bay shorelines, it has been exacerbated by development, sea-level rise, and historic impacts to backing marshes, making beach habitat more prone to being lost. In response, the American Littoral Society and its partners have been restoring beaches along Delaware Bay for over a decade, with restoration planned for Kimbles in early 2027.

​By comparing the baseline data we collected this spring, to data that we collect after the beach restoration, we will be able to assess the effectiveness of our restoration work and design and implement better projects. We can also learn about horseshoe crab behavior and evaluate the impacts (if any) that our tagging program has on the crabs themselves. To that end, we are trying to answer three main questions with our monitoring at Kimbles:

​To answer the first question, we counted the number of crabs found in a series of evenly spaced 1m2 quadrats laid down along the high tide line (Figure 1). We sampled on three different occasions, primarily around the new and full moons in both the morning and evening. Because environmental variables such as water temperature and tide height can affect spawning horseshoe crab presence, we also collected data on them. And we divided the beach into zones to determine if more crabs were found in particular spots on the beach, and if so, was that due to physical characteristics such as sand depth, percentage of coarse-grained sand, or evenness of slope. All told, this monitoring will let us estimate how many crabs were on the beach before and after restoration and highlight the important beach characteristics that facilitate greater spawning. 

.​Some literature suggests that horseshoe crabs may express individual differences in activity level by time of day. Like you, horseshoe crabs have internal clocks that regulate physiological processes and behaviors. For example, the increased sensitivity of their eyes at night (up to 100,000-fold) is controlled by a circadian clock that responds to light, while the timing of their spawning to coincide with high tides is controlled by two circalunidian clocks that respond to water pressure. If certain crabs show preferences for (or only) spawn during the day or night, then that information can help us generate better estimates of their spawning numbers. To test this, we used white nail polish to paint a portion of the crabs we observed during the day and used UV flashlights to search for the painted crabs at night. The nail polish fluoresces under UV light. Horseshoe crabs do too.

Finally, to assess the potential impact of tagging on crab welfare, we used infrared cameras to record the behavior of a subset of crabs after they were tagged. We are often asked if tagging hurts the crabs. Essentially, people are asking, do crabs feel pain? Scientists infer this in animals by evaluating their neural anatomy and assessing how they respond to various behavioral manipulations (Do they avoid places where they’ve been injured? Do they display wound guarding? Do they respond to analgesics? Etc.) Our best evidence suggests that crabs likely don’t feel pain. However, restricting an animal’s ability to perform the behavior it wants to perform is also considered harmful even if the animal isn’t sentient. And it can have wider implications on its fitness and the health of the population. Consequently, if tagging interrupts horseshoe crab spawning, it could reduce the number of eggs laid over a given period, the amount of new horseshoe crabs that make it to adulthood, and the availability of horseshoe crab eggs as food for the multitudinous other species that rely on them.

​When restoration at Kimbles Beach begins in 2027, the data we've collected this year will provide an important baseline for comparison. By continuing to monitor horseshoe crabs after restoration, we'll be able to measure whether our efforts created better spawning habitat, providing us with important insights to guide restoration projects into the future.  

​Our second weekend of tagging in May was met with a similar chill in the air, but also with the promise of warmer weather heading our way. The Society continued to welcome dedicated volunteers to the Bayshore, excited to receive an update on the crabs. At each tagging event, Shane Godshall, Habitat Restoration Program Director, and Kerstin Axe, Habitat Restoration Technician, provided an overview of the fascinating Limulus Polyphemus (Atlantic Horseshoe Crab). Shane & Kerstin touched on the life history of horseshoe crabs, their interactions with humans, and, most importantly, how to deploy the white disc tag to their left side.

​Our third weekend of tagging in May was finally met with the warmer weather that was promised. Typically, peak horseshoe crab spawning takes place around Memorial Day Weekend. (The crabs flock to the beaches, just like the people do!) The number of crabs observed during our tagging events on Weekend #3 remained lower than expected, at least at those bay beaches in Cumberland County. We believe this may have something to do with the colder bay temperatures that permeated later into the season, due to that early – Spring chill experienced throughout Weekends #1 & #2.

Our first weekend of tagging in June was full of beautiful sunsets, characteristic of the Bayshore. At this point in the season, many volunteers were returning for their 2nd or 3rd event, or had been anxiously awaiting their time with the crabs. The Society also spent some time this weekend celebrating horseshoe crab spawning and migratory shorebird feeding at our annual Sunset on the Bay! It is of essence to note that these tagging events were hindered by abnormally high tides, due to the New Moon, and associated Spring Tide. One tagging event was even cancelled, due to a Coastal Flooding Advisory. ​

O​ur final weekend of tagging was capped off with the deployment of our 4,000th tag for the season! Volunteers were ecstatic about assisting us in crossing the finish line, and we took a moment to pat ourselves on the back in light of empty boxes of tags. Shane & Kerstin made a point to thank volunteers for their efforts at each & every event. Our tagging program is Staff-Coordinated, but it is also Volunteer-Charged. We are so grateful to those who spend their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings with us on the bay. For now, we bid farewell to our favorite friends, with hopes that next year’s tagging will be just as successful.

What to Do if you Spot a Tagged Crab
​If you come across a tagged horseshoe crab during your upcoming time on the beach, please report your resight to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service! (www.fws.gov/crabtag). This website links to a form, which will allow you to share the Tag #, condition of the crab, and where it was spotted. The USFWS will then share this resight information with the Society, if it happens that the tag was deployed by our volunteer fleet. We value this data, as we use resights as an indication of our restorative success. In other words, if we resight crabs on beaches that we have restored, we know that sufficient spawning habitat has been created

As Philadelphia celebrates America's 250th birthday in the midst of a blistering 100‑degree heat wave, it is worth remembering that this city is one of the world’s great historic river towns. The Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers—and the creeks that feed them—have shaped Philadelphia’s identity for millennia. Today, they remain a billion‑dollar natural asset, offering recreation, cooling, ecological richness, and drinking water to millions. Yet these waters are still burdened by one of the most persistent and solvable pollution challenges of the 21st century: raw sewage discharges, known as combined sewer overflows (CSOs), contaminating our waterways as many as 195 days out of the year. If Philadelphia is to honor its river heritage and protect its residents during increasingly dangerous heat waves, it must commit to making its rivers and creeks truly clean. ​

And here is the most striking—and troubling—fact: many of Philadelphia’s smaller creeks are already designated for swimming under Pennsylvania’s water quality standards. Legally, they are supposed to meet “primary contact recreation” criteria. In practice, they routinely fail. Monitoring shows that after storms, bacteria levels in creeks like Cobbs, Tacony, and Pennypack soar well above safe limits. The law says these waters should be swimmable; the City’s inadequate infrastructure ensures they are not.

This gap between legal designation and lived reality is unacceptable—especially for communities that rely on local creeks for recreation and relief from extreme heat. Clean water access is not just an environmental priority; it is a public health necessity.

The remedies are well known. Other historic U.S. cities—Boston, Baltimore, Chicago—have invested heavily in CSO control, modernizing sewer systems and reducing bacteria pollution to meet federal and state standards. Philadelphia must follow suit. Our research estimates that fixing the CSO problem would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, funded through a combination of federal, state, and local sources. Spread across years and across the city’s population, the investment is affordable—and the benefits are enormous. Swimmable water quality would generate billions of dollars in economic, recreational, ecological, and public health value, exceeding costs by at least five to one. Chicago’s reversal and cleanup of its river system shows what is possible: today, people swim in a river once considered hopelessly polluted.

Philadelphia has made progress before. The 1948 Schuylkill cleanup ordered by President Truman, the 1961 Delaware River Basin Compact signed by President Kennedy and four governors, and the 1972 and 1977 Clean Water Act amendments all transformed the region’s waters. As a result, American shad now swim past the Ben Franklin Bridge and spawn hundreds of miles upstream. The next step is clear: invest in CSO abatement to meet the Clean Water Act’s fishable and swimmable goals and protect the public health of our residents.

​Philadelphia is a world‑class city built between two beautiful rivers. We see this in the crowds on the Art Museum steps during the World Cup, in the rebirth of Penn’s Landing, in the Delaware River Trail stretching to the Tacony‑Palmyra Bridge, and in the Schuylkill River Trail reaching Bartram’s Garden. As we experience more extreme heat, the rivers are central to the city’s future. ​

​Affordability is on everyone’s mind. We are all asking what we can afford now, what we need to save, and what today’s choices will cost tomorrow. The same is true in nature.
 
Delaware Bay has its own economy. Every spring, tiny green horseshoe crab eggs become one of the Bay’s most valuable currencies. The influx of calorie-rich eggs fuels red knots, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, fish, terrapins, and the larger web of life.
 
When there are enough eggs on the beaches, shorebirds gain the weight they need to reach Arctic breeding grounds. Fish and terrapins fuel up after a long winter. And that abundance helps sustain the next generation of horseshoe crabs and the future productivity of the Bay.
A large spawning horseshoe crab population is a long-term investment in the Delaware Bay ecosystem.

​Delaware Bay Was Once a Superabundant Food Engine
 
In the 1980s and early 1990s, horseshoe crabs were dense enough to “cobble” the beaches, and egg densities in the upper beach sand often exceeded 50,000 eggs per square meter. That abundance supported extraordinary concentrations of migratory shorebirds and fish.
 
When eggs were abundant, red knots could gain weight at extraordinary rates, and the Bay supported immense concentrations of migratory wildlife.
 
During the 1990s, Delaware Bay horseshoe crab bait harvest increased approximately tenfold, contributing to a greater than 90 percent decline in egg availability for red knots.
 
Scientists have suggested that red knot recovery may require average egg densities of at least 50,000 eggs per square meter. In 2024, NJDEP reported average egg densities of 7,618 eggs per square meter on Delaware Bay beaches. Recent average egg densities remain more than ten times below estimates from the 1980s.
 
The red knot numbers tell a similar story. Delaware Bay peak counts of red knots averaged more than 43,000 birds from 1986 to 2002. From 2012 to 2024, they averaged about 21,000, still far below historic highs. NJDEP reports that recent counts remain roughly 77 percent below the historic maximum count of 94,460 red knots in 1989.

​A Hopeful Year, But Not a Full Recovery
 
This year’s shorebird observations offer reason for hope after years of conservation work.
 
Preliminary 2026 project observations reported approximately 33,000 red knots in a May 25 New Jersey-side count. Egg availability improved later in May on some beaches, although overall egg densities appeared broadly similar to those of recent years.
 
Even more encouraging, the proportion of red knots reaching the 180-gram departure threshold was extremely high. This matters because it is the weight biologists look for as a sign that birds are leaving the bay in good condition for the final flight to the Arctic.
 
These hopeful (albeit preliminary) numbers suggest that when beaches are restored, crabs are protected, and birds are given space to feed, Delaware Bay can still do what it has always done: fuel life. Conservation investments can pay dividends, but now is the time to let those investments grow, not cash them out too soon.

​The Balance Is Still Fragile
 
Many factors influence whether enough eggs are available to the food web.
 
Like economics, some forces are beyond our direct control: climate, water temperature, migration timing, sea-level rise, and storms that sweep sand from beaches more frequently.
 
Plus, timing matters.
 
Shorebirds need eggs to be abundant and available during a very narrow window. Climate change can shift timing in ways that make it harder for shorebirds and horseshoe crabs to meet each other at the right moment. Water temperature can alter spawning timing. Cold water can delay spawning, while unusually warm conditions may advance it, potentially reducing the overlap between peak egg availability and shorebird migration.
 
Plus, horseshoe crabs can take roughly a decade to reach maturity. That is why the choices within our control matter so much.
 
We cannot control timing, or every tide, storm, or climate impact moving through Delaware Bay. But there are clear levers we can pull to support a strong Delaware Bay and a thriving horseshoe crab economy.

​First, Protect and Restore Delaware Bay Beaches
 
On Delaware Bay, sand is the platform for spawning and the delivery system for eggs.
 
Horseshoe crabs need dynamic sandy beaches with the right slope, grain size, and elevation so eggs are not smothered, washed away, or buried beyond the reach of shorebirds. American Littoral Society’s work at Reeds Beach, Cooks Beach, Kimbles Beach, and other Delaware Bay sites shows what this looks like in practice: removing rubble and debris, adding sand at a suitable grade and depth, restoring beaches for horseshoe crab spawning and shorebird foraging, and using oyster reefs and marsh restoration to strengthen shorelines. If you build the habitat, the wildlife comes. Restoring beaches is an investment in the bay’s productivity.
 
It’s just a bonus that by improving habitat and increasing shoreline resilience, we strengthen the shoreline for communities too. 

Second, Maintain New Jersey’s Horseshoe Crab Harvest Moratorium And Preserve The Delaware Bay Region’s Zero-Female Bait-Harvest Quota

Taking adult crabs for bait removes spawning animals from a system that needs more eggs, not fewer.
 
Reopening a female harvest would be especially shortsighted. Female horseshoe crabs are the reproductive engine of the population. Removing them limits the food source that supports shorebirds, fish, terrapins, and the broader fisheries food web.
 
Horseshoe crab eggs help feed the bay. For people who rely on fisheries, this is also a fisheries productivity issue. These eggs support the chain of life that supports fish, baitfish, and the species commercial and recreational fishermen care about.
 
Reducing that food supply before the horseshoe crab population and egg densities have fully rebounded is not smart management. It is pulling from the principal before the investment has matured. You would not drain your savings just because the market finally started moving in the right direction. You would let the investment grow.
 
The same is true here. Recent signs of improvement are exactly why we should stay the course. They are not a reason to roll back protections. They are encouraging evidence that sustained conservation can help the system recover when conditions align.

Third, Move Fully Toward Synthetic Biomedical Alternatives
 
For decades, horseshoe crabs have been captured and bled for biomedical testing. Horseshoe crabs have contributed enormously to human health. But synthetic alternatives now exist.
 
Validated alternatives to horseshoe crab-derived endotoxin tests now exist and are increasingly recognized by U.S. and international standards. Accelerating their adoption is necessary to reduce biomedical reliance on wild horseshoe crabs. Eliminating the biomedical pressure is another lever we can pull. 

​Fourth, We Can All Be Good Stewards
 
Everyone who loves Delaware Bay has a role to play.
 
People can help by respecting seasonal beach closures, giving feeding shorebirds space, turning over stranded horseshoe crabs, joining American Littoral Society tagging events, supporting beach restoration, supporting smart horseshoe crab policy, and bringing others to the bay to learn why the Bayshore is so important.

​Let the Investment Grow
 
Recent assessments indicate that Delaware Bay horseshoe crab abundance has generally improved since approximately 2012, following earlier harvest reductions. Those signs of improvement have prompted decision-makers to look again at the models that inform horseshoe crab bait harvest policy. But abundance today should not make us forget how hard this system was hit, or how long recovery takes, particularly for slow-maturing species.
 
The real question is whether there are enough eggs, in the right places, at the right time, to support the food web and broader ecology of the system to a level we want.

​Now is not the time to roll back protections. Now is the time to let the investment grow.
 
Policymakers should maintain horseshoe crab harvest moratoriums, keep Delaware Bay female horseshoe crabs off the bait market, expand funding for Delaware Bay beach restoration, and accelerate the transition to synthetic biomedical alternatives.
 
To support a thriving Bay full of life, we need to act on the levers we still control. Delaware Bay still knows how to sustain life. Our job is to give it enough room, enough time, and enough horseshoe crabs to do so.

On May 30th, over 70 volunteers from Evergreen Group visited Sandy Hook for a day filled of service work. Attendees spent the day cleaning the beach, filling biodegradable shell bags, constructing Reef Prisms, and learning about tabby concrete, a hardened substance derived from recycled oyster shells. As volunteers assisted Society staff in assembling and constructing materials, they learned about the purpose and destination of these materials. Dorn Island, located in the Navesink River, will serve as a monitoring station for Society staff to observe and document the performance of varying shoreline protection materials in order to determine what best to use in large scale habitat restoration efforts throughout the state. In Fall 2026, the Evergreen Group volunteers will be invited back to transport and install the materials constructed at the May 30th event at Dorn Island allowing Society staff to begin the monitoring process. ​

The critical long-term study known widely among the local ornithological community as the annual “Harbor Heron’s Survey” has been made possible over the years by a truly outstanding and enduring collaborative effort between the NYC Bird Alliance, their partners across academic institutions, City, State and Federal agencies, local experts, non-profit organizations, volunteers, the Hudson River Foundation, and of course the American Littoral Society!

​Over the last 20 years, Don Riepe, the American Littoral Society’s Jamaica Bay Guardian and captain of the Society’s NY program boat has been providing critical boat support to ferry scientists and volunteers from the NYC Bird alliance to known isolated heron colony islands across New York Harbor, thus enabling researchers conduct long-term monitoring survey efforts detailed in the recent scientific paper linked at the end of this story.   ​

Since the kickoff of horseshoe crab spawning in the beginning of May, the Society’s Delaware Bay Restoration Corps members have been lending a helping hand at Bay Point Beach. This consisted of assisting Habitat Restoration Technician, Kerstin Axe, with imperative monitoring activities. Restoration activities at Bay Point Beach were completed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in conjunction with the Stockton University Coastal Research Center. ​

Throughout May and early June, R-Corps members have tagged horseshoe crabs, keeping track of their sex and condition. They have also ensured minimal impingement on the breakwater and sill structures, which aim to maintain sand on the beach by slowing wave activity. In the coming weeks, as horseshoe crab spawning dies down, members will look to shift gears to marsh and oyster monitoring. These surveys will allow the Society to share insight about the growth of the marsh, as well as the recruitment of oysters on breakwater and sill structures, within the 2026 season. ​

These monitoring activities contribute to the overall experience of the Delaware Bay Restoration Corps. This season, they have also had the opportunity to join Wildlife Restoration Partnerships for bird banding and horseshoe crab egg density surveys. Through the banding of red knots, as well as the counting of horseshoe crab surface eggs, members are learning the ins and outs of the Society’s programmatic restoration program, which builds habitat for migratory shorebirds and horseshoe crabs. ​