Something unusual and exciting has happened just off the coast of New Jersey; a new island that has become a haven for birds has formed. Located on the southern edge of the Little Egg Inlet, the island is about 1000 feet offshore of Little Beach Island, a Unit of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge). Of course, it didn’t form overnight, an emergent shoal has been noted in that location since about 2018, and it has slowly been growing, likely as a result of the longshore drift of sand from Long Beach Island. The island, dubbed Horseshoe Island because of its distinctive shape, provides incredibly valuable habitat for nesting and migratory birds, including many at-risk species.
Long-legged spider crab (Libinia emarginata). Photo courtesy of Save Coastal Wildlife.
A special thanks to Juliet Kaszas-Hoch for spotlighting the most recent episode of CWF’s podcast, State of Change, as part of her Art & Entertainment Column on TheSandpaper.net!
The episode, Our Changing Coast, takes a deep dive into how our ocean species could be affected by climate change. CWF Multimedia Producer Matt Wozniak interviewed Dr. Thomas Grothues, a research professor with Rutgers University who specializes in abundance and distribution of fish, as well as Joe Reynolds, the head of Save Coastal Wildlife, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s coastal species and educating the public about them.
Ocean dwelling wildlife species are among the most interesting and most valuable to humans. They fascinate us with their unique life histories and provide us with a vast fisheries resource that creates a multitude of jobs and lets us have a delicious meal of local seafood.
In this episode of our podcast State of Change, “Our Changing Coast,” we delve into how our ocean species could be affected by climate change. We interviewed Dr. Thomas Grothues, a research professor with Rutgers University who specializes in abundance and distribution of fish, as well as Joe Reynolds, the head of Save Coastal Wildlife, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s coastal species and educating the public about them.
As water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean rise, aquatic species such as fish and marine invertebrates will be among those who feel the effects first. Evidence points to many northern species becoming less frequent and many southern species becoming more frequent. This is bad news for fisheries centered around species that could become less abundant.
Like many other climate change related issues, understanding how marine species will be affected by warming waters is complicated but also fascinating. Listen to the podcast to learn more!
The Statue of Liberty had a surprise tourist last week!
A humpback whale was spotted in the Hudson River on December 7th & 8th in the vicinity of Liberty Island. Video and photos of the whale were posted to Twitter as boaters took notice of the large marine mammal.
New York City Parks Department confirmed the citing on their social media on Tuesday:
“Whale sightings have increased in recent years in N.Y.’s waterways. Reasons for the uptick may include an improvement in local water quality, & an abundance of food sources like Atlantic menhaden.”
New York City Parks Department
Marine wildlife education group, Gotham Whale, also posted about the sighting, tracking the animal during it’s visit and urging boaters to exercise caution while traveling on the Hudson.
Humpback whales are a rare sight in the Hudson, but are hard to miss due to their size and perchance to show off by frequently surfacing and breaching. The last humpback to find it’s way to the Hudson was in 2016, when a humpback took up a week long residence in the busy waterway.
A beached humpback whale, found on the bay side of the inlet just across the Townsends Inlet Bridge. Photo by Seven Mile Times.
On Thursday, November 5, 2020, a 20-25 foot juvenile humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was found dead floating near a sandbar in Townsends Inlet in Cape May County, New Jersey. The large mammal had apparently been dead for several days. It was first spotted around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
This tragic event follows even more heartbreaking news about Right Whales, the most endangered large whale species in the world!
The North Atlantic Right Whale.
We are very sad by the announcement by researchers at the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium that the estimated number of North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) remaining in the world is just 356, not 400 as previously thought. It is truly upsetting news. The population continues to be in decline, and the decline is accelerating.
Horseshoe crab blood is hypersensitive to dangerous bacteria that can develop in injectable medicines and vaccines.
In the race for a vaccine for COVID-19, horseshoe crabs – a New Jersey coastal fixture both now and eons ago in the days before the dinosaurs – may play a vital role.
This video story by ABC Action News features CWF Executive Director David Wheeler and top shorebird scientist Dr. Larry Niles in telling this science fiction-like tale.
CWF took Asbury Park School students on a virtual field trip to the Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center in Barnegat Bay.
Asbury Park elementary schoolers participating in the district’s Summer Enrichment Program have had a wild reason to look forward to Wednesdays this summer – Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s virtual Wildlife Explorers Program sponsored by New Jersey Natural Gas.
CWF
Director of Education Stephanie DAlessio has been teaching students about the
wildlife that lives, breeds, and migrates in their community. Virtual field
trips, engaging lessons, and live webcams have exposed elementary schoolers to
a gamut of topics ranging from oystercatcher adaptations to ocean litter.
This two-month
curriculum reinforces the Asbury Park School District’s emphasis on STEAM
(science, technology, engineering, art, and math) and gives students access to
nature right from their own homes. To participate in activities authentic to
biologists, students have been recording weekly observations and data in
science field journals, holding meaningful discussions about the environment,
and completing at-home activities.
“New
Jersey Natural Gas has been involved in the Asbury Park community for nearly 70
years,” said Tom Hayes, the Director of Customer and Community Relations.
“Strengthening sustainability and engagement in our communities, especially
educating about our environment, are the main focus of our community
involvement, so this is exactly the type of program we are excited to be a
partner on.”
A
‘living fossil’ today swims the Delaware River, having survived eons from the
days of the dinosaurs through the caviar craze a century ago that nearly wiped
it out for its roe, or valuable eggs.
However, as explored in the latest episode of State of Change – Conserve Wildlife Foundation’s regular podcast exploring climate change impacts on New Jersey wildlife –the Atlantic sturgeon faces an abundance of modern threats.
From
a historic population of 360,000 adults, “Based on our best estimates, there’s
less than 300 in the river. There’s less than 1 tenth of 1% that was there
historically,” says Dewayne Fox, a professor of fisheries at Delaware State
University. “The loss of one or two adults is a significant loss of spawning potential
in the Delaware River.”
Among
the largest river fishes in North America, the Atlantic sturgeon can grow up to
14 feet and weigh up to 800 pounds. One sturgeon from New Jersey is believed to
have been over 1,000 pounds. The Atlantic sturgeon’s features indicate that
their existence can be traced back to millions of years.
Yet
that lengthy run was in jeopardy after facing ensuing perils of caviar
harvesting and pollution.
Derelict fishing gear continues to plague the depths of Barnegat Bay. Often lost through storm events or due to boat traffic, lost or abandoned crab pots (ghost pots) become an unintentional deathtrap for a variety of marine species and reduce otherwise harvestable resources. CWF and their partners at MATES, Stockton, and ALS have been working to recover lost pots in Barnegat Bay since 2015.
Over the course of the last three field seasons, 1,300 crab pots have been recovered and their bycatch has been extensively documented. Notably, CWF and MATES have been focusing on how to further help northern diamondback terrapins who often find themselves caught in ghost pots. In 2016, one pot contained the remains of 17 terrapins.
As we enter the fourth field season of pot collections, the project hopes to not only recover as may pots as possible, but also to glean further information on how the pots move in a variety of substrates and under a variety conditions. To bring further awareness to the issue, CWF teamed up with the awesome folks at Citizen Racecar to produce a short informational film about ghost fishing and its effects on Barnegat Bay. Visit our Facebook page to view the video: https://www.facebook.com/wildlifenj/
This project is funded primarily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with additional support by the New Jersey Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Covanta and Schnitzer Steel also support the project by recycling the metal in the retrieved crab pots.
