Looking Forward

GCA's plans for 2012 and beyond point to an ambitious campaign combining consultation, partnership, engineering, activism and community involvement in our mission.

To pro-actively assist the Red Knot population, as well as affect the status of other migrating shorebirds in decline, we are developing and refining plans to implement innovative methods which can actually result in improved departure weights for the birds. A promising development in horseshoe crab research has come to our attention: Dr. Carmela Cuomo, an accomplished researcher at the University of New Haven, has found a way to provide just the right environment for horseshoe crabs to spawn and produce eggs in the laboratory. This is pretty exciting; and Dr. Cuomo's work elegantly complements the aims of the Red Knot Survival Project. With her science and our activism, along with assistance from the New England Aquarium in Boston, GCA has formed a purposeful team to take part in rescuing the Red Knot.  Our president, Porter Turnbull, has accepted an appointment as an Adjunct Research Scientist at the New England Aquarium, providing GCA with access to the Aquarium’s research facilities, their library and "programs support for joint fundraising for research activities".  

GCA is focused on promoting the concept of intervention via an increase in horseshoe crab eggs at Delaware Bay beaches and on developing the storage and delivery methodology for horseshoe crab eggs produced by aquaculture. From here on out, we are concentrating on putting together a coalition of researchers, production facilities, funding and political activism to pave the way for feeding red knots the same nutritious horseshoe crab eggs that have fueled their flights for a long time, all without disturbing existing vital natural sources of horseshoe crab eggs.