Five South Jersey Beaches Readied For Horseshoe Crab Spawning Season
By David Madden
PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (CBS) -- The feds have completed a $1.6-million beach restoration project along the Delaware Bay -- a project that is meant to assist wildlife.
Five beaches in Cape May and Cumberland counties have been replenished, and 800 tons of debris left in the wake of Hurricane Sandy have been removed.
Those beaches are a spawning ground for the horseshoe crab.
"The horseshoe crabs spawn. They lay eggs, and those eggs are a critical forage resource for shore birds that are stopping over, migrating up to the Arctic to nest," explains Eric Schrading of the New Jersey office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which coordinated the project.
Care to take in the spawning for yourself? Hit those beaches at high tide, from now till mid-June.
But be warned: the later you go, the more likely you'll have to deal with the carcasses of older horseshoe crabs that don't make it back to the bay. The smell is not appealing.
