Red Knot Timeline

Use the timeline below to learn more about red knots and the work Defenders has done to protect them.

September 2007

Defenders and other groups ask Delaware to go back to the drawing board and pass a regulation that puts in a place a moratorium on the horseshoe crab fishery. An earlier attempt was stopped by a lawsuit filed by a handful of fishermen and a Virginia seafood processor who profits from the horseshoe crab fishery.

Press Release 9/24/2007
Comment Letter 9/21/2007

February 2007

Read the shorebird team’s blog of their experiences this winter surveying red knots in South America.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife publishes the results of the 2006 shorebird season. The report finds that the threat to the red knot population continues to increase and that “weekly surveys on the Delaware Bay continue to reflect a decline in the baywide population, now lower than at any other time of the survey.” Read the report.

December 2006

Defenders and other conservation groups send a joint thank you letter  to Governor Ruth Minner for approving a two-year moratorium on the take of horseshoe crabs.

November 2006

The state of Delaware approves a two-year moratorium. Read the state’s press release and the Secretary’s Order.

September 2006

Defenders and other conservation groups write to Delaware Governor Ruth Minner urging her administration to approve a two-year moratorium on the harvesting of horseshoe crabs in Delaware waters.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fails to list the red knot. Read our press release and the Service's letter. 

Instead of listing the red knot, the FWS added it to the list of Candidate species. Each year, the FWS conducts a yearly appraisal of the candidate species list detailing those plants or animals that may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In some cases, the FWS is precluded from listing a species as threatened or endangered by other, higher listing priorities. These "warranted but precluded" species are placed on the candidate list.

June 2006

Defenders and our partner file suit in federal court to hold the federal government accountable for failing to list the red knot. In their suit, we outline how the Service denied the petitions based on speculative assessments about steps that will be taken to protect the red knot, many of which have not come to pass, and of improperly reviewing or ignoring key data about the red knots' decline. Read our press release.

May 2006

On May 16, Defenders and a coalition of conservation groups sent a letter to Acting Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett that serves as the groups’ Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for violations of the Endangered Species Act.

The notice stems from two emergency petitions to list the red knot (Calidris canutus rufa) filed by the groups last summer. It alleges that the Service violated the ESA on two counts: once when they denied the request to list the red knot on an emergency basis and again by failing to issue a 90-day finding on the merits of listing the knot. The letter states that the Service failed to rely solely on the best scientific and commercial data available when making their decisions. Read our press release.

On May 9, 2006, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission failed to impose a two-year moratorium on the take of horseshoe crabs in Delaware and New Jersey. Defenders and a coalition of groups supported the moratorium as a means of increasing the supply of horseshoe crab eggs on Delaware Bay beaches for migrating red knots and other shorebirds, which would have in turn helped the birds put on sufficient weight to complete the final leg of their migration to northern breeding grounds. Please read our press release for more details. We will continue to push for a listing under the Endangered Species Act in order to force the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to consult on the impacts to red knots resulting from the horseshoe crab fishery.

March 2006

Kudos to the state of New Jersey for voting in support of a state moratorium on the take of horseshoe crabs.

January 2005

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded to our emergency listing petition and declined to emergency list the red knot, citing the bird had a "good year" last year. Read the USFWS' letter. Read our press release responding the USFWS' decision.

July 2005

On July 28, 2005, Defenders and other conservation organizations filed an emergency petition asking Secretary Norton to list the red knot as endangered. Read our press release and view a copy of the petition.

In early June 2005, Defenders and 7 other conservation organizations requested the Governors of New Jersey and Delaware for an emergency closure of the horseshoe crab fishery in their state waters. The crab harvest is halted at the time red knots and other shorebirds are present in May and June but resumes again once they leave until the quota is reached. Defenders activated its New Jersey activists and asked them to place calls to the Governor of New Jersey. New Jersey responded by closing the harvest for an additional two weeks. Delaware did not comply with our request. Read our press release.

In order to ensure that federal legislators are aware of the most recent information concerning the plight of the red knot, Defenders organized a congressional staff briefing on the issue on June 2nd. The briefing was organized on behalf of a coalition of groups that have worked together for many years to stop the further decline of the red knot.

Presentation to congressional staff made by the team of red knot experts

Defenders contributed $5,000 to the State of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection Endangered and Nongame Species Program and their red knot protection program. The state had closed key feeding beaches from May 14th to June 7th to help ensure that migrating red knots have ample time to feed undisturbed on fat-rich horseshoe crab eggs. The eggs provide the nourishment the birds need to gain adequate weight to complete their migration to the Arctic breeding grounds.

Volunteers, including some Defenders members, will help man the beaches and educate the public about the plight of this highly imperiled species.