By Jshuane Melton,
Delaware State News
PORT MAHON — Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control employees got a helping hand from prison inmates in helping more than 1,000 displaced horseshoe crabs find their way home Wednesday.
Stewart Michels, a DNREC fisheries scientist, said the agency began receiving calls from concerned citizens Wednesday morning saying a large number of horseshoe crabs were wandering along Port Mahon Road near the Little Creek Wildlife Refuge.
Mr. Michels said this is spawning season for the crabs, that might have been caught aground after laying eggs.
"They come up at high tide and they want to get their eggs as high on the beach as they can to keep them away from marine predators and found themselves trapped," he said.
"There are a couple of pipes that go into the road that got impacted with sand. When the pipes were partially filled, some of the crabs got in there during high tide.
"They got trapped and couldn't get back through the pipes."
Mr. Michels said to see such a large number of animals trapped was odd.
"This is kind of unusual, we get calls for birds occasionally or a reptile and we generally have people on staff that can respond," he said.
"But this was a lot of crabs, and they are heavy. We're talking thousands of animals here instead of one or two."
The large number of crabs forced DNREC to call for extra hands, which were provided by a group of Department of Correction inmates.
"We've got a pretty small staff and a lot of other projects going on this time of year so our wildlife guys coordinated getting a crew of prisoners," Mr. Michels said.
With the help of the DOC work crew, DNREC employees were able to get most of the crabs that were still living back to their homes in the Delaware Bay.
"The crabs that were alive probably will do just fine," Mr. Michels said.
"There were a number of dead crabs there but we got back maybe 40 to 50 percent of the crabs."
The horseshoe crabs are an important part of the delicate ecosystem along the shore.
The crabs are currently the centerpiece of a multi-state debate regarding the red knot shorebird.
The red knot's numbers had steadily been decreasing over the last few years and environmentalists pointed to the decline of the horseshoe crab, whose eggs the red knot feeds on during its migration, as the reason for the drop in population.
Mr. Michels said DNREC is investigating if there is a relationship between a decline in horseshoe crabs and a drop in the number of red knots.
"We're trying to asses data to make sure birds are achieving the weight they need to make it to the Arctic and that the horseshoe crab population at the very least stabilizes, if not grows," he said.
The horseshoe crab's possible relation to the red knot wasn't an issue in working so hard to save as many crabs as possible Wednesday, he said.
"The crabs are a valuable resource in and of themselves … they go hand in hand, but it's not just because of the shorebird," he said.
"Just to see these crabs out there struggling to live was enough."
Staff writer Jshuane Melton can be reached at 741-8225 or jmelton@newszap.com.
Reprinted with permission from newszap.com
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