If it is summertime, you can be pretty sure that most New Jersey residents have plans to make it to the beach. And with so many miles of wonderful coastline, why wouldn’t they? Whether it’s for a day trip or a whole week, New Jersey beaches are prime locations for summer fun in our great outdoors.
This poll was created in 2008 as the New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey to encourage stewardship and pride in the state’s beaches while promoting a little healthy competition between New Jersey’s favorite beach towns. It is a way to celebrate everything there is to love about the Jersey Shore. We’ve conducted this poll since 2008 to call attention to New Jersey’s amazing beaches. Over time we’ve learned a thing or two — mostly that New Jerseyans are passionate about all the beaches up and down our coast. So, in order to better recognize every inch of our wonderful coastline, this year we will recognize a number one beach in each of New Jersey’s four coastal counties as well as a favorite beach overall.
This year after nearly 10,000 votes cast in a public poll, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium revealed the winners in Ocean City, the defending champion of the poll.
The votes are in! New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium is excited to announce the winners of this year’s Favorite Beaches Contest. Thank you to everyone who voted and showed love for their favorite shore spots. Here are your county-by-county winners, along with the overall champions:
On Thursday, July 17, New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium held its annual Favorite Beaches Contest Ceremony in beautiful Ocean City, New Jersey. Ocean City proudly accepted its awards for Overall Favorite Beach and Cape May County Winner.
A special thank you to the City of Ocean City for graciously hosting the event at their iconic Music Pier!
New Jersey’s Top 10 Beaches poll is now New Jersey’s Favorite Beach poll. Look out for more information soon.
Voting now OPEN until June 9, 2017. Cast your vote here!
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 competition between New Jersey’s favorite 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 state’s summer festivities.
During the spring and early summer, Jersey Shore enthusiasts are invited to cast a vote for their favorite beach communities.
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, state officials. The event was moved to the week before Independence Day in 2015 so that voters were casting ballots closer to when they mostly use the state’s beaches.
Check out the winners of the Top Ten Beaches title from 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, 2014 and 2015. In 2013, in recognition of the impacts of Superstorm Sandy along the Jersey Shore, rivalries were put on hold and New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey focused on sharing images and memories of the Jersey Shore.
Celebrating its fourteenth year, Ocean Fun Days drew a crowd of thousands this past weekend (May 20-21), as attendees both young and old partook in hours of nonstop fun and interactive education.
Despite a slight chill in the air on Saturday at Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park (NJ), display tables were jam-packed with individuals eager to learn more about coastal stewardship and energy conservation, among several other exciting environmental subjects. The release of diamondback turtle hatchlings into their natural habitat (hosted by Project Terrapin and the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science), was a sight that couldn’t be missed, and will likely become a favorite OFD memory for years to come.
The sun evoked smiles and laughter at Sandy Hook on Sunday, where a few lucky participants were crowned “claw” winners during the popular fiddler crab races. NOAA scientists also offered a rare glimpse into what wonders take place at the James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory.
Over 50 exhibitors presented at this year’s event, including the American Littoral Society, Clean Ocean Action, NJDEP Division of Parks and Forestry, Rutgers Cooperative Extension/Water Resources Program, and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. Other activities included seining, bird walks, beachcombing, and tours of Sandy Hook’s legendary Lighthouse and Fort Hancock Battery Gunnison.
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.
For more information on upcoming events, please contactNJSGC Communications Specialist Danica Bellini at dbellini@njseagrant.org.
More than 12,000 votes were cast for New Jersey’s favorite beaches in 2015. Ocean City took the top spot for the second consecutive year, and Cape May beaches once again dominated the annual survey. The poll started 2008 to foster competition between the state’s beach towns. The results of the poll are used throughout the year. For example, when NJ.com reported on TripAdvisor’s declaration that the Wildwoods are the top destination on the rise this past December, the strong performance of Wildwood, Wildwood Crest and North Wildwood in the survey was cited as a possible reason for the ranking.
Update: Voting for New Jersey’s Favorite Beach begins May 2! Visit here for more information.
(Sandy Hook, NJ) — Sentimental beach lovers have until April 28th, to cast their photo votes and share their favorite Jersey Shore memories at www.njtoptenbeaches.org. The creators of the popular NJ Top Ten Beaches annual survey and tourism leaders from Sandy Hook to Cape May have teamed up to focus on a different angle for this year’s project by asking visitors to the web site to vote for a favorite photo and share a favorite shore memory that will help create a special limited-edition Making More Shore Memories calendar.
(Sandy Hook, NJ) — Despite the devastating blows Sandy dealt many beach communities last fall, the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium (NJSGC) is coordinating a cooperative effort among regional tourism leaders that will put a non-competitive focus on its popular, annual New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches project to help promote Shore tourism for the summer of 2013.
In 2008, the New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey was created by NJSGC and the Richard Stockton College Coastal Research Center to encourage stewardship and pride in the state’s beaches while promoting a little healthy competition among New Jersey’s favorite beach towns. The voting traditionally opens up on the New Jersey Top Ten beaches web site in mid- to late February and continues through the end of April. The results of the survey are announced each year just before Memorial Day weekend at the NJSGC’s State of the Shore Media Event, a premier gathering of coastal experts, State officials, and members of the news media, to kick off the Jersey Shore summer.
Find out what NJSGC and our partners have been up to this past season in the Summer 2024 edition of the COASTodian:
–NJSGC’s Photo Contest Wows Again!
–Dr. Peter Rowe attends Sea Grant Week in Savannah to learn about Sea Grant network activities and responses to a wide variety of marine related topics
–Research Spotlight: It’s Not Just Oysters! The Importance of Biodiversity in Restoration Studies
–New Jersey Names its Favorite Beaches Again!
–The Eco-Ambassador Marine Debris Project is underway at at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at the Columbia Climate School
New Jersey boasts some of the most picturesque beaches along the East Coast. If you have a great shot that celebrates and embraces the natural elements of the Garden State’s beautiful coastline, submit the image to NJSGC’s “Favorite Beaches of the Jersey Shore” photo contest! Ultimately, the top twelve photos will be used to create New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium’s annual desktop calendar for 2025.
About the Contest:
New Jersey Sea Grant’s graphic design team will select 24 photos from all entries received up until Wednesday, June 21st (5 pm EST). Those finalists will then be posted on the NJSGC website where visitors can vote for their favorite throughout the month leading up to the July Fourth holiday.
New Jersey’s “Favorite Beaches” Photo Contest Submission Guidelines:
(If your submission does not meet the following guidelines, it will not be considered)
The email entry should include: name, email, photo location, and image title.
Stick to the contest theme: Natural Elements of New Jersey Beaches. We welcome both traditional and innovative approaches to this subject, but please no family portraits.
Photo files must be .JPG or .PNG format and a minimum of 300 DPI saved at a quality setting of “10” or higher and 8 ½” for the longest side.
Images should be horizontal (landscape).
Entries will be accepted until 5 pm (EST) on June 21st
Submit only your own original work.
Photos should be appropriate for a general audience. Explicit content is expressly prohibited.
Post-processing and digital manipulation is not allowed, but minor adjustments to contrast, filtration, subtle burning, and dodging are acceptable.
All entries become the property of NJSGC and may be used by the organization for other educational or marketing materials (the twelve finalists will receive an additional waiver for signature prior to publication of the calendar).
Do not include any logos or text on the photo.
By submitting your photo to this contest, you grant NJSGC permission to publicly display, reproduce, and use the photographs in all manner and media for any and all purposes, including related promotional purposes, in perpetuity. You also warrant that the photo is your original work and does not violate the copyright or any other personal or property right of any third party, and that you may be required to and can obtain any and all releases and permissions necessary for its use in the production of our calendar, including releases for any recognizable faces, unless they are incidental to a larger scene (e.g., a group of sunbathers on the beach).
Winners will be announced prior to the July Fourth holiday. These images will be used to create the 2025 NJSGC downloadable desktop calendar (https://njseagrant.org/desktop-calendars/), which will also feature useful coastal facts and information to help locals and visitors learn more about and appreciate the Jersey Shore.
