their journey to their arctic breeding grounds. Easy and
interesting except for the terrifying fact that the number
of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay has decreased
precipitously in the past decade and a half. Watermen have
long harvested the crabs for bait to catch high-priced eels
and conch. Inevitably as the horseshoe crab population
decreased, researchers documented an alarming drop in the
number of red knots present in the migration route. Some
scientists claim a decline in population approaching 90
percent over the past two decades.
Thus, the discussion of the red knots inevitably
enters the politically-charged arena of determining whether
they should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The interaction of the birds and the crabs predictably
involves a third specie ̃