| ||||||||
| ||||||||
Just a quick email to express my gratitude once again to all those people who were able to spend a few hours last Sunday evening along Sandy Hook Bay and Raritan Bay in Monmouth County. Unfortunately, due to the stormy and wicked weather last Sunday evening, some monitoring sites were not able to proceed with monitoring or tagging activities, while a few other sites had to do so rather quickly or conduct a shortened monitoring event. I am sorry for the trouble this might have caused. I am hopeful that the weather will be better for the next HSC date on June 7th. Otherwise, I am still in the process of gathering and dealing with the data from the five monitoring sites, but so far this is the information I have in brief: 1) Sandy Hook/Plum Island: Volunteers counted 50 horseshoe crabs, but due to the weather, they were not able to tag any HSC. Also, due to the weather, students from MAST were not able to participate. 2) Atlantic Highlands: Six volunteers were able to monitor 400 feet of beach. They tagged 15 single HSC (13 males & two females) and counted 51 Horseshoe crabs near the mouth of Many Mind Creek. Out of that number, there were 16 mating pairs. No clusters found. 3) Ideal Beach/Middletown: Four Horseshoe Crabs were found before the weather turned bad. 4) Conaskonck Point/ Union Beach: Volunteers counted 67 crabs before they were chased “back into the parking lot because of lightning bolts coming down into the bay.” 3) Cliffwood Beach: Unfortunately, this site had to totally cancel due to the weather. Considering that the weather was against us, everyone did a fabulous job. Thanks! Your time and energy is much appreciated in the name of science!! Please mark your calendars now for the next Horseshoe Crab monitoring event. It will take place on Sunday, June 7th, at 8:00pm. Thanks & fair winds, | ||||||||
print
