Crab Orgies Return To Jersey Beach For Summer Of Love

CAPE MAY COUNTY, NJ — The third week of May marks a tradition that's more than 400 million years old. An abundance of horseshoe crabs have made their way to the beaches of the Delaware Bay to mate.

The world's largest concentration of these crabs (not really a crab but an ancient cousin of the scorpion) can be found on the Delaware Bay, according to the New Jersey State Park Service.

Every May into early June (and sometimes into July), huge female horseshoe crabs drag a male or two ashore to "nest," Cape May Point State Park Naturalist Matt Pelligrine shared.

They lay thousands of eggs, which hatch the next full moon - that is, if they don't get eaten by birds, Pelligrine said.

Some of the shorebirds flying north, such as the red knot, ruddy turnstone, sanderling and semipalmated sandpiper, have spent the winter in the southern tip of South America at Tierra del Fuego, he said.

"They are on their way to the Arctic tundra to nest, flying nonstop from the tip of South America to the beaches of Brazil to feed on small invertebrates," Pelligrine explained. "They then fly four days nonstop to the Delaware Bay to feast on horseshoe crab eggs."

The birds then fly nonstop again to the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where they feast again, and spread across the Arctic to nest, he said.

During this time, some beaches where horseshoe crabs nest are closed as to not disturb the process. If the birds get scared away, this could delay their own nesting process.

Check out Pelligrine's video for further information on this ritual.