The fates of a migratory shorebird, horseshoe crabs, and the state's oyster industry have converged at the center of a debate over how each should be accommodated where they come together every spring, in New Jersey tidal flats along the Delaware Bay.
Wildlife advocates hope to restore the dwindling population of red knots, small birds that federal authorities listed as a threatened species about three months ago.
The bird's round-trip migration of nearly 20,000 miles between South America and the Arctic depends on crucial stops along the Delaware Bay, where the birds seek to fatten up on horseshoe crab eggs, but where they recently have not found them plentiful.
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