On December 9, 2014, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the red knot bird has won federal protection. An excerpt from The Wisconsin Gazette article on the announcement is given below.
Rare Atlantic Shorebird Wins Federal Protection
The red knot -- a robin-sized bird that makes 9,300-mile migrations -- has won Endangered Species Act protection under the Center for Biological Diversity's 757 species agreement. This epic traveler depends on horseshoe crabs' eggs for the energy it needs to make its twice-yearly trips between South America and the Canadian Arctic. Thus, as crab populations decline due to harvest by the fishing and biomedical industries, so do the red knot's. The bird is also threatened by habitat destruction and climate change.
In 2005 environmental groups petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for emergency protection of the species, but the agency stuck the bird on the "candidate" list, where it languished for nearly a decade. Now, because of the Center's 2011 agreement, the Service has finalized protection for this singular bird.
Because the bird is now protected under the Endangered Species Act, its shoreline habitat in Maryland and Delaware legally requires maximum protection from water pollution and environmental degradation.