Now celebrating its fourteenth consecutive year, Ocean Fun Days will be held on Saturday, May 20th at Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park and Sunday, May 21st at New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s headquarters in the historic Fort Hancock section of Sandy Hook. Both events take place rain or shine from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. As always, admission and parking are free to all attendees.
Ocean Fun Days is a weekend of eco-friendly fun the whole family can enjoy. Many popular exhibitors are scheduled to return in 2017. They’ll offer a diverse array of educational displays, nature tours and interactive programs focused on coastal stewardship and energy conservation. Activities at both locations include seining, coastal crafts, an energy scavenger hunt, youth fishing clinics, face painting, touch tanks, games and exciting giveaways.
New this year at Island Beach State Park, join students and faculty from Project Terrapin and the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES) as they release young diamondback turtles back into their natural habitat. Space is limited for what’s sure to be a new Ocean Fun Days favorite.
On Sandy Hook, along with NJSGC’s famous fiddler crab races, the NOAA/National Marine Fisheries laboratory will host an open house where scientists and researchers eagerly await to share their influential work. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse and Officer’s Row living quarters will be open for tours. Don’t miss the WWII action at Fort Hancock’s Battery Gunnison. The National Park Service, in conjunction with the Army Ground Forces Association, will lead gun drills and demonstrations on Sunday. Complimentary shuttle bus service is provided to take visitors to all tour sites.
Ocean Fun Days is presented by founding sponsor New Jersey Natural Gas, in partnership with New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, Asbury Park Press, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, National Park Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium is an affiliation of colleges, universities and other groups dedicated to advancing knowledge and stewardship of New Jersey’s marine and coastal environment. NJSGC meets its mission through its innovative research, education and outreach programs. For more information about NJSGC visit njseagrant.org.
** NOTICE DATE/LOCATION CHANGE: No longer at McLoone’s Asbury Park on Thursday, May 25th.
About: NJSGC’s State of the Shore Media Event is your opportunity to meet with coastal expert Dr. Jon Miller (NJSGC/Stevens Institute of Technology) and NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin to learn how New Jersey’s shorelines fared over the winter and hear their forecast on conditions for our state’s beaches during the 2017 summer season.
RSVP: Please confirm your attendance by emailing Danica Bellini, NJSGC Communications Specialist at dbellini@njseagrant.org.
Voting for New Jersey’s Favorite Beaches is underway for 2017!
Summer’s right around the corner, which means it’s time to cast your vote for New Jersey’s favorite beach! Pick your top choices NOW before the poll closes on June 9th, 2017!
This year, fans get to choose their favorite local “hotspots” from a list of several popular beaches throughout four coastal counties – Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth, and Ocean. NJSGC will still announce the “overall favorite” beach later this summer.
In 2008, the New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches survey was created to encourage stewardship and pride in the state’s beaches while promoting a little healthy (and friendly) competition between New Jersey’s beloved beach towns. We invite you to join us in celebrating everything there is to love about the Jersey Shore! The contest has become a highlight of the Garden State’s summer festivities.
During the spring and early summer, Jersey Shore enthusiasts are invited to cast a vote for their favorite beach communities throughout four different counties.
The results of the survey were historically announced each year just before Memorial Day Weekend at the NJSGC’s State of the Shore Media Event, a premier gathering of coastal experts and state officials. In 2015, winners were instead revealed just before Independence Day, to encourage more voter participation during the Jersey Shore’s most popular time of the year.
Check out the winners of the Top Ten Beaches title from 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2013, in recognition of the devastating impacts of Superstorm Sandy, rivalries were put on hold and the survey focused instead on sharing images and memories of the Jersey Shore.
Finally, in 2016 the “Top Ten” title was revised so that voters had more variety, taking into account the vast beauty of NJ’s wondrous coastline. With nearly 10,000 votes cast, the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium revealed the winners in Ocean City last June. The two overall favorite beaches were longtime reigning champion Ocean City and Wildwood Crest.
Be sure to share this year’s survey with family and friends, and stay tuned for the official results later this summer!
Connect with NJSGC on social media for more updates. Thank you for your continued support!
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa
Standing at the shoreline, it is easy to feel small. Almost three-quarters of our planet is water. There is a temptation to feel helpless against whatever nature has in store for us. Here at NJSGC, we know the temptation all too well. We have to scrape for every dime. We have to squeeze that dime and make it go as far as a dollar. We have to educate our children; we have to inspire our maritime scientists; we have to engage our communities. These tasks are our sworn mission.
We face incredible challenges.
There is a story about Mother Teresa facing impossible odds serving a poor community of thousands. Surveying the chaos, a reporter asked Mother Teresa: “How can you possibly save all of these people?” Mother pointed to one man: “By starting with him.”
That is how our staff and scientists address our core mission of education, research, and outreach. The job is daunting, but we focus on the task at hand. As a result, we have developed a dune manual that teaches coastal communities how to build a dune, how to maintain it, and how to plant it. We have top-flight education programs for our youth, from showing how our Lenape tribes lived as one with the ocean to inspiring them to be marine scientists and coastal stewards. We have assembled a Coastal Storm Awareness Program, working in conjunction with our colleagues in New York and Connecticut, on how to save lives and promote public safety when the next Superstorm arrives. We are all this, and so much more.
Survey these pages. Feel our challenges and celebrate our successes. Honor the staff and scientists who make it possible against impossible odds.
What we are doing may just be a drop in the ocean, but that ocean would be far less without New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, our member institutions, and our staff, I am most proud to offer this Annual Report.
The two NJSGC Boy Scout Individual Merit Badge courses — Environmental Science and Oceanography — are full and enrollment is now closed.
Both courses will be offered again in early fall. Dates will be announced in late summer, and notifications will be included on our website and also emailed to our Scouts contact list.
If you would like to be included on this list and receive announcements about our Scout programs, please email our Communications Specialist Danica Bellini at dbellini@njseagrant.org.
Please find additional information about all NJSGC Scout programs here.
For questions about the programs or the waiting list, please email Scout Program Coordinator Jody Sackett or call at 732-872-1300 x20.
New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium needs your support. The current administration has proposed budget cuts for 2017 and 2018 that would severely limit, and in some cases eliminate, hundreds of federal programs that sustain and protect the environment. These cuts include the total elimination of Sea Grant. Please consider contacting your elected officials to tell them you oppose these cuts. Visit njseagrant.org/support for more information and congressional contacts.
Anastassia Swenticky, a Georgian Court University senior, was featured in the Asbury Park Press. Her project, Evaluation of use of deep-rooted ornamental grasses as a mechanism to mitigate soil compaction, was funded by New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s 2016 Undergraduate Minigrant award.
Along with her faculty mentor Dr. Louise Wootton, Swenticky’s aim was to determine if the use of deep-rooted plants can be used as an alternative to heavy machinery in decreasing soil compaction. Read more about her work here.
Ocean Fun Days are almost here! Come to Ocean Fun Days and celebrate waves of ocean discovery. Enjoy exhibits, classes, nature tours, and children’s activities all about our coastal environment. You’ll have a great time learning the science of our shorelines and how to care for them for years to come!
A record number of exhibitors have already committed to be a part of this year’s event. Activities at both locations include seining, coastal crafts, an energy-saving scavenger hunt, youth fishing clinics, face painting, touch tanks, a student science fair competition and the NJSGC’s famous fiddler crab races.
The Sandy Hook location will also include guided tours of many of Sandy Hook’s historic sites and an open house at the NOAA/James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory. A complimentary shuttle bus service will be available at both locations to take visitors to tour sites.
Dr. Michael Schwebel presented a workshop at the 32nd Annual Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education Conference. Dr. Schwebel is the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium and Urban Coast Institute community resilience and climate adaptation specialist.
The workshop, titled “Communicating about climate change and its impact in New Jersey’s coastal communities” was given to formal and informal educators to gain insights on how to discuss and teach about climate change to students and program participants. The workshop focused on explaining the current and future impacts of climate change in New Jersey. Dr. Schwebel worked with participants to try climate change-related classroom activities. Feedback gathered in the session will help New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium staff plan future efforts in climate education.
