Delaware Bay Shell-a-Bration Captured on Video

South Reeds Beach Oyster Reef Event Filmed by Local Delaware Bay Producer

By: Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

A record number of Red Knots were counted on New Jersey’s Delaware Bay this year, in part because of innovative restoration projects like our South Reeds Beach oyster reef.

Over 130 volunteers and veterans worked alongside Conserve Wildlife Foundation and American Littoral Society to establish a near-shore whelk shell bar at South Reeds Beach in Cape May Court House on the Delaware Bayshore in early April.

Shorebirds, like the federally listed Red Knot, depend on an uninterrupted supply of horseshoe crab eggs when they stopover in Delaware Bay during their migration. In recent years, countless horseshoe crab eggs have been lost because of the devastating storms that swept away the beaches they depend on.

The oyster reef was built to prevent sand loss from wind-driven waves. The approximately 200-foot project will test whether the reef bars help reduce beach erosion and create calmer water for spawning horseshoe crabs.

Learn more about the project and our “Shell-a-Bration” event in the video above produced by Kathleen Poliski of K. Productions, LLC!

The South Reeds Beach Oyster Reef is one of the many projects that American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation are working on to restore the ecology and economy of the Delaware Bayshore, thanks to generous funding by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. To learn more, visit RestoreNJBayshore.org.

Lindsay McNamara is the Communications Manager for Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.