Delaware Bay

"Delaware classified as impaired the highest percentage of its rivers and streams of any state in the U.S., according to its most state recent reports filed with EPA, with 97 percent of the state’s 1,104 miles of assessed waterways listed as impaired for one or more use. Delaware also reports that 100 percent of its 775 square miles of assessed estuaries are impaired. Pollutants in Delaware’s rivers and streams include fecal bacteria, excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), as well as pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins. According to the EPA, most impairments in the state’s waters come from polluted runoff from farms and suburban and urban areas. . . 'Too many people here have no access to clean water coming out of the tap, especially in our poor and minority communities. The fact that Delaware has the highest percentage of impaired rivers and streams in all of the U.S. shows there is a clear failure to protect public health here.' "

"Conservationists found fewer than 7,000 of the bird’s rufa subspecies during extensive counts on land, air and water on the New Jersey and Delaware sides of the bay during May. The number is about a third of that found in 2020; less than a quarter of the levels in the previous two years; and the lowest since the early 1980s when the population was about 90,000. . . The latest drop makes the rufa subspecies — which has been federally listed as threatened since 2014 — even more vulnerable to external shocks. . . The best hope for the species to survive lies in a complete ban on harvesting female horseshoe crabs until the crab population recovers, Dr. Niles said. . . “Rufa knots, especially long-distance red knots, could be lost. We can’t stop bad winds or cold water, but we can expand the population of horseshoe crabs, so birds arriving in most of these conditions find an abundance of horseshoe crab eggs."

“For decades, the Delaware River basin struggled for recognition and federal funding, overshadowed by billions of dollars in federal money that flowed into neighboring Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. But years of federal neglect are expected to change thanks to the passage of the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act . . . ‘I’m thrilled to see this bill, which will create a restoration program for the Delaware River Basin, finally cross the finish line,’ said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Dela- ware . . . The planning will be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and if additional funding becomes available, the agency will coordinate restoration work that will be aimed at efforts that reduce flooding, mitigate the impacts of sea level rise and also lessen the problems associated with intensive land use that creates issues such as erosion and sediment deposition into the basin and its tributaries.”

"Tidal restriction may accelerate degradation of tidal marsh resilience to sea-level rise by limiting sediment supply necessary for marsh accretion, resulting in specialist habitat loss in tidally restricted marshes. Based on our findings, we predict a collapse of the global population of Saltmarsh Sparrows (A. caudacutus) within the next 50 years and suggest that immediate conservation action is needed to prevent extinction of this species."

"Delaware Bay, one of the largest and richest estuaries in the United States, is a case study in how warming oceans, associated storms and sea-level rise are eroding wetlands, damaging water quality, and unraveling terrestrial and near-shore aquatic ecosystems in many parts of the world. In Delaware Bay, the victims include such interdependent organisms as trees, marsh grasses, fish that use the wetlands for spawning and nursery habitat, oysters, mussels, crustaceans, shorebirds, marsh birds, and waterfowl. . . Delaware Bay could lose 90 percent of its wetlands to rising seas, wreaking havoc with a complex ecosystem."

"Black rails have been detected during the breeding period within all three Delaware Counties between 1933 and 2014. . . All records from the state are from tidal salt marshes. Reported numbers from the three stronghold sites have declined by approximately 90% since the 1990s. The only observations reported since 2010 have been within Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and Big Stone Beach Marsh. Although marshes have been impacted by a series of forces over the past two centuries, the greatest current threat to black rails nesting in Delaware is the inundation of habitat used for breeding due to ongoing sea-level rise. Black rails are listed as endangered within the state of Delaware and have been ranked as a Tier I species of greatest conservation need."

“Not only are salt marshes being fractured and ‘pushed’ further upland, but salt water is now intruding farther into the creeks, leading to the demise of the trees . . . The very beach itself is being eroded, overwashed and moved inland; areas of peat — remnants of earlier salt marsh vegetation are being exposed for the first time in thousands of years.”

"For millions of years, Delaware Bay has played host every spring to the world’s largest concentration of breeding Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs (Limulus polyphemus). But since the early 1990s, this ancient species has faced extreme pressure. Due to an increased demand for horseshoe crabs as bait for conch and eel fishing, as well as for pharmaceutical bleeding, the population has experienced such a precipitous decline that today the species is considered “Near Threatened” by the IUCN. . . neither local homeowners nor any other volunteers were allowed to enter many New Jersey beaches to rescue impinged and overturned horseshoe crabs. As a result, this very preventable cause of mortality has been one of many issues undermining recovery efforts. . . The goal was to create a volunteer-run initiative to rescue horseshoe crabs while staying in line with both New Jersey’s Endangered Species Conservation Act and the horseshoe crab moratorium."

"Like clockwork, the red knots arrive every spring, descending on the beaches of Delaware Bay to feast for a few weeks on horseshoe crab eggs and, in the process, double their body weight. The knots are delicate, robin-size shorebirds named for their salmon coloration and renowned for their marathon migration — more than 9,000 miles each way, from the southern tip of South America to the Canadian Arctic. That migration is fueled by an ancient synchronicity — the spawning of billions of tiny green horseshoe crab eggs just as the knots and their prodigious appetites arrive — that is now threatened. Largely because of the overfishing of horseshoe crabs for bait (they are a favorite of conch fishermen), the East Coast red knot population has plummeted. Their numbers have dropped from more than 100,000 in the 1980s to only about 30,000 today . . ."

“Suspended sediment, in addition to fertilizing the water, also reintroduces toxic materials that have been deposited in some bottom sediments in Delaware waters. Heavy metals and other compounds entering the waterways can become concentrated in fish and cause illness in humans when the fish are consumed. The growth and survival of clams, oysters, crabs, shrimp and other benthic organisms can be affected by even moderate levels of suspended sediment. As the silt settles these organisms and plants are covered. The loss of these organisms affects other animals such as fish and waterfowl. Since many estuarine fish (such as white perch and river herring) have eggs that sink to the bottom, deposits of suspended sediment in estuaries, tidal creeks and associated freshwater streams during spawning periods can destroy a brood stock. Layers of dead oysters, for example, can be caused by intermittent spoil disposal. Thoughtless spoil disposal not only reduces fish and shellfish harvests but can lead to the generation of biologically dead areas.”

“Like a mutant blob in a horror movie, an oil slick first thought to be relatively small has grown bigger and more menacing over the past week, oozing its way down the Delaware River. When the Greek tanker Athos I began leaking heavy Venezuelan crude oil into the river the night of Nov. 26, it appeared to be a manageable spill confined to a terminal—just 30,000 gallons, according to estimates. But authorities now warn that it could be as much as 473,000 gallons, a gooey mess that has stained as many as 70 miles of shore along three states . . . The muck has killed birds, fish and turtles. It has shut down a nuclear plant and threatened a dozen freshwater streams and tributaries.”

“With estimates of global sea-level rise from about 0.2 m to over 1.0 m by the year 2100, the salt marshes of Delaware and elsewhere will most certainly be affected. The loss of these ecologically important areas will have a lasting effect on not only the abundance and diversity of wildlife in the coastal environment but also on the condition and preservation of the Delaware bays and of the coastal communities.”

“Cape May National Wildlife Refuge provides critical habitat to a wide variety of migratory birds and other wildlife. It supports 317 bird species, 42 mammal species, 55 reptile and amphibian species, and numerous fish, shellfish and other invertebrates.”

“Around the bays has long existed a culture like that of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where agricultural and marine trades have lived side-by-side in a pastoral landscape of small farm towns and quaint fishing villages. But World War II changed all that. Former soldiers, college educated on the G.I. Bill, got good jobs that paid far more than those their parents held . . . Oceanfront development boomed . . . Unfortunately, improvements to waste water treatment weren’t among the many technological advancements of the day. That meant that the inland bays, situated just west of booming oceanfront communities and the fragile barrier islands they were built on, became dumps for untreated sewage... While housing development exploded, farmers around the inland bays were drawn to new fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides . . . [that] poured into coastal and intertidal waters in large quantities, such products overwhelm the ecosystem. Nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates continue to do their work where that work isn’t needed, encouraging aquatic life to grow out of control.”