On Sunday, February 10, at 8pm EST, the award-winning PBS series "Nature" will feature migratory Red Knots and the horseshoe crab. Crash: A Tale of Two Species examines the amazing relationship between these two threatened species; check local listings at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/.

As an American Bird Conservancy supporter, you will be familiar with the work ABC has done to try to save the rufa Red Knot from extinction (Click here to view a Bird News Network video on this topic). The knot migrates from the tip of South America to its breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, and stops off briefly at Delaware Bay. Here it relies almost completely on horseshoe crab eggs to refuel for the second leg of its arduous journey.

Since the 1990s, over-harvesting of horseshoe crabs has caused the density of its eggs to plummet, which has affected the Red Knot's ability to find and consume enough eggs to survive. As a result, the knot has declined from a high of more than 100,000 birds in the 1980s to fewer than 15,000 today. Scientists warn that unless this trend is reversed, it could go extinct as early as 2010.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection recently announced its intention to continue a moratorium on horseshoe crab harvest in Delaware Bay to give the species a chance to rebound. However, the state agency is under heavy pressure from fisheries interests to lift the ban. A final decision on the New Jersey moratorium is expected in the next few weeks.

Please watch the Nature show on PBS.

Photos: Mike Parr, ABC