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Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge , Delaware
The Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 8,800 acres of marshlands, tidal marsh areas and open water in the Delaware Bay Estuary. The refuge helps protect coastal habitat from escalating development in the area.
Source: Sierra Club special report, SPARE America's Wildlands. Up to Top |
Each year when horseshoe crabs spawn on the
beaches of Delaware Bay, the second largest concentration of migrating shorebirds in the
Western Hemisphere descends on the beaches for an annual feast. The Bay hosts the world's
largest population of spawning horseshoe crabs, and their eggs provide necessary
sustenance for the thousands of Red Knots, Sanderlings, and Ruddy Turnstones as they move
from their winter grounds in South America to their breeding grounds in the sub-arctic.
Horseshoe crabs are also an important food source for many species of fish and the
loggerhead sea turtle.