Funding for the Red Knot Survival Project

Starting in 2010, our efforts to help shorebirds near Cape May has operated under the title of
the Red Knot Survival Project.

GCA is very pleased to note that Patagonia, the clothing and outdoor equipment retailer, blessed
the Red Knot Survival Project with a generous grant to fund our 2011 field season. The GCA founders, along with three volunteer assistants, were on hand at Delaware Bay for ten days overall at the end of May. The difference between the Patagonia grant amount and our actual expense budget for this very active period in New Jersey was picked up by a loyal and annual corporate supporter, the patent law firm of Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner, out of Minneapolis. Many thanks to both of these sponsors for making 2011 happen for GCA.

Both of these sponsors contributed to our work again in 2012; and we attracted the generosity of a new donor organization, the Norcross Wildlife Foundation.  Many thanks as well to them.

GCA is looking for capable and committed underwriters for the costs of researching, testing and implementing programs that will directly contribute to the survival of the East Coast populations of rufa red knots on their migratory path to their northern nesting grounds. There should be residual benefits of our work for other species of shorebirds whose life cycle closely parallels that of the red knot, inside and outside the US. Total estimated costs of a pilot year for the Red Knot Survival Project are $100-120,000 for Limulus egg production at an institution-supported marine laboratory, plus $80-100,000 for engineering, administration, fundraising, travel expenses, etc.for GCA.

GCA also anticipates approaches to the LAL industry, the extraction facilities which harvest horseshoe crabs specifically to remove and process a portion of their blood to produce LAL (Limulus amebocyte lysate), used globally in testing for bacterial contamination in pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment and blood products.  This is an industry measured in hundreds of millions of dollars annually.  We think the LAL industry has been flying below the radar of public awareness when accurate assessment of the mortality percentage of the wild crabs they process is in question and when they could be supportive of efforts like ours, aimed at protecting species directly affected by diminished numbers of horseshoe crabs. More about LAL

If you, as a private individual, a corporation, a professional or as an organization, recognize the severity of the clear trend toward extinction of this bellwether species, and you are moved to be part of solutions to reverse the trend, please respond with your questions, your advice and your support.