Free Republic

Will the Birds Stop Returning to Delaware Bay? By TINA KELLEY Published: May 23, 2005 CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. - The red knots were already three days late on their flight north from the bottom of the world and the people waiting for them were beginning to get nervous. The birds' dining table was not even set.On the full moon of the fifth month of the year, horseshoe crabs crawl up on the beaches of Delaware Bay to mate, as they have for 200 million years. A decade ago, they covered the beach like cobblestones, and flocks of red...

States React to Declining Horseshoe Crab Population TRENTON, New Jersey, April 30, 2003 (ENS) - New Jersey's chief environmental official signed an emergency order today that curtails the state's horseshoe crab harvest, following similar measures taken Friday by Delaware state officials. The states are reacting to declines in the horseshoe crab population and migrating shorebirds, which stop over each spring on Delaware Bay beaches to feed on the fat rich eggs of the horseshoe crab. "Sudden and dramatic declines in horseshoe crab and shorebird populations make clear that prompt action is needed to protect these resources," said New Jersey's...

<p>The U.S. Coast Guard removed two Iraqi-national crew members from an oil tanker it boarded in the Delaware Bay and are holding them in an undisclosed location.</p> <p>The Qatar-flagged, 880-foot tanker is anchored at the Coastal Eagle Point Facility, a refinery across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, and remains under armed control of the Coast Guard, which boarded the ship last week.</p>

Port officials are trying to determine what to do with several Iraqi crewmen aboard an Arab oil tanker anchored in the Delaware Bay. The Iraqis are part of the crew of the Aldawha, which is registered in Qatar and owned by the Arab Maritime Petroleum Co. Details are sketchy but Senior Chief Tod Lyons of the Coast Guard's Fifth District press office in Portsmouth, Va., confirmed an investigation was underway, but said no decision had been made about what to do with the Iraqis.