Media Release

August 2, 2005

Contact:
William Lutz 202-772-0269
Brad DeVries 202-772-0237

CONSERVATION GROUPS CALL FOR EMERGENCY
ENDANGERED LISTING FOR RED KNOT,
A RAPIDLY DECLINING SHOREBIRD

Washington, DC - In response to the 80% decline in Red Knot population over the past ten years, leading conservation groups filed an emergency petition asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the Red Knot as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. The listing request comes from an alliance of wildlife groups including Defenders of Wildlife, New Jersey Audubon Society, American Bird Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, Delaware Audubon Society, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Audubon New York, Audubon Maryland-DC and Virginia Audubon Council.

"Our petition plainly demonstrates that the Red Knot is on the path toward extinction. The Bush Administration now has the opportunity to reverse the bird's downward spiral and the Endangered Species Act is the tool they need to do that," said Defenders of Wildlife Executive Vice President, Jamie Rappaport Clark.

The petition targets the rufa subspecies of the Red Knot, a migratory shorebird that makes an 18,000 mile roundtrip journey each year from its winter home at the tip of South America to the Arctic and back again. The birds stop just a few times on the way to refuel. Their final critical stop is at Delaware Bay, which is the most critical because it is the last major refueling spot before completing the journey to their Arctic breeding grounds. At the Bay, the starving birds must feast on fat-rich horseshoe crab eggs in order to restore the reserves necessary to complete their migration and to provide energy for the first several days or weeks in the Arctic as food there can initially be scarce. But, in recent years, Delaware Bay's horseshoe crab population has rapidly diminished and the number of birds able to successfully reach their breeding grounds and successfully reproduce has dramatically declined.

"The Red Knot's decline is a direct result of the overfishing of horseshoe crabs whose eggs are a critical food source for the Red Knot's migration," said Perry Plumart, American Bird Conservancy's Director of Conservation Advocacy. "We urge Interior Secretary Norton to act now to keep the Red Knot returning to Delaware Bay in the decades to come."

The birds visiting the Delaware Bay, once numbering more than 100,000, now number around 17,000. If nothing is done to ensure the bird's survival, recent scientific models predict extinction as early as 2010.
The petition details reasons why the Endangered Species Act's emergency listing provisions are needed to save the bird, including:

• Its primary food source in the United States - horseshoe crab eggs - is threatened due to over utilization of crabs for commercial purposes.
• The birds' inability to properly refuel at Delaware Bay reduces rates of survival and recruitment and increases their susceptibility to disease and predation.
• Existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate as the Red Knot receives only minimal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and no protection for its habitat or food source.

The Endangered Species Act emergency listing petition comes after the groups had worked for many years with the states and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the agency that regulates the horseshoe crab fishery, to reduce the take of horseshoe crab eggs in Delaware Bay and neighboring areas. In June, the groups asked the Commission and the states of New Jersey and Delaware for an emergency closure of the horseshoe crab fishery to stop the further decline of available horseshoe crab eggs. New Jersey closed the harvest for an additional two weeks due to the presence of a late arriving flock.

Although some states have taken additional actions such as closing key feeding areas to the public during spring migration and reducing competition for eggs between knots and gulls, these efforts are not able to reverse the bird's severe decline. New data showing that the Red Knot population continues to decline at a rapid rate suggests that a complete closure of the horseshoe crab fishery is the most important action that can be taken to stop further decline of this species. A listing under the ESA would require the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to consult with the Service on the impacts of the horseshoe crab fishery on the red knot and lead to the development of a coordinated recovery plan, a potential closure of the crab fishery and funding for implementation of various conservation measures.

The petition concludes: "In the absence of an Endangered Species Act listing for the Red Knot, protection efforts to date have failed to address site-specific threats to the Red Knot (i.e. habitat loss and availability of food at Delaware Bay) and also have not led to the development and implementation of conservation and management strategies on the multi-state regional scale that are necessary for the preservation of the species."

"The Red Knot features one of the longest migrations of any bird species and is a valuable part of the coastal web of life from the Arctic to the southern tip of South America," said Greg Butcher, Director of Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society. "Our willingness to act quickly and decisively to save this icon of global connectedness is a powerful test of our stewardship of Earth's vital resources."

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