Pete McLain, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 1984. Over 126,000 acres of Delaware Bay Wetlands were dedicated as a Wetland of International Importance in May, 1992. This includes 70 sites along the Delaware Bay in New Jersey and Delaware. Delaware Bay is also the site of the largest spawning concentration of horseshoe crabs along the Atlantic coast. The northbound migration of shorebirds coincides with horseshoe crab spawning in the bay.
All shorebirds move between the beaches and marshes for feeding, resting and roosting.
NJ Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Delaware Department of Fish and Wildlife - Nongame and Endangered Species Program, conducts annual surveys of shorebird abundance on beaches. Birds observed in tidal marsh habitats are estimated at 700,000, approximately two times that on bay beaches. There are large areas of state and federally-owned land. Many towns along the Bay are fishing villages inhabited more heavily in the summer. In the river and upper estuary, industrial land use includes chemical industries.