In This Issue:

• Coastal Calendar
• FEATURE: Greening the Garden State Through Remediation, Assessment, and Restoration
• Jersey Beaches on "Shore" Footing
• Fishing for Regulatory Solutions
• Shellfish Restoration Program Enters Fifth Year
• Marine Science Competition Plumbs Oceans of Knowledge
• Shore Takes Center Stage in Survey

View to the south of the North Wildwood beach in 1995. Note the vast green area of dune vegetation and the bulge in the beach just south of the storm water discharge pipeline. Morey’s pier in the distance was well back on the dry beach and relatively safe from wave damage.
By 2006, large volumes of beach sand were now in Hereford Inlet along the inlet seawall. The bulge is gone and so is much of the green vegetated dune area. Morey’s Pier, not entirely built on pilings, is still on the beach but now vulnerable to storm damage by minor storms.

Jersey Beaches on “Shore” Footing

by Dr. Stewart Farrell, Director, Richard Stockton College Coastal Research Center

       The New Jersey shore is winding up the first decade of the 21st Century on solid footing in terms of beach stability and user satisfaction with the recreational experience. The balance sheet has two important pluses: first is the continued absence of significant storm events to cause damage, the second has been the availability of both Federal and State funding for restoring the beaches of communities with significant erosion. The economic viability has never been greater. There are plenty of seasonal jobs, and the negative national economy should convince thousands more locals and nearby neighbors to visit the New Jersey beaches this summer because the costs are lower, and the shore economy will welcome them with enthusiasm. Storms have been the scourge of a sand shoreline where minor changes in wave energy, frequency or severity of storms can produce hundreds of feet in shoreline position shifts. Inlet geometry is constantly changing, taking sand from one side and adding it to the other. The City of North Wildwood has seen a 1,450 foot wide beach erode landward by 1,054 feet in eight years. Half the sand moved down the beach into Wildwood, the other moved north into Hereford Inlet. This erosional episode was entirely produced by the shifts in the inlet geometry, not storm activity.

       This recent development clearly illustrates that each barrier island has its individual sand supply and that the waves, tides and storms can re-arrange the situation relatively easily in spite of human interests. The North Wildwood problem has reoccurred periodically several times during the past century, and is evidence that all the sand on New Jersey beaches does not end up in Wildwood.

Long Beach Boulevard following the March 1962 northeaster in Harvey Cedars. Homes are gone or moved into the road; scouring wave currents have cut multiple ditches through the asphalt.
Harvey Cedars today (Jan 20, 2007) as the Federal shore protection project in Surf City was underway. Note the vastly greater number of homes in 2007 compared to 1962 and complete the thought process by calculating what a 1962-event replay would cost the island’s property owners if the 1962 losses were in excess of 125 million 1962 dollars.

       Storms can do tremendous damage when the combination of high winds, storm surge and big waves combine with the alignment of the sun, moon and earth to create “spring tides.” This occurred in 1962 when a March storm came up the coast from Cape Hatteras and generated northeast winds between March 6th and 9th. In spite of gusts into the 60 MPH range, the average wind speed was only 38 MPH, but the storm lasted 5-6 high tides during a spring tide period with aligned celestial bodies. The impact was devastating for the Jersey shore just as the largest building boom ever to affect property values was getting up a real head of steam. Destruction was widespread, cutting Long Beach Island into three pieces and washing homes into the bays and lagoons. Boats, still tied to their trailers, having been parked for the winter in beach house driveways, were pulled from the forest up the Mullica River, which originated on Long Beach Island.

       Shore protection is the process of pumping sand from a source area called the “Borrow Zone” to the project beach to widen the dry beach and build a protective dune for big storms. This process costs substantial money, and needs periodic maintenance since the building material is SAND. However, sand is why people come to the beach. The rocks make a longer-lasting barrier to the storms, but don’t make the grade for setting up the beach umbrella and letting the kids run into the surf.

       New Jersey leads the nation in both the number of Federal projects on the books, and the highest percentage of the State shoreline under Federal management. A Federal project pays 65% of the design, construction and maintenance costs for an agreement period of 50 years (subject to continued Congressional funding). New Jersey passed a law in 1994 creating a fund that today provides $25 million a year for matching these Federal project monies. This law also specifies that any State and local project is cost shared at a 75% State and 25% local ratio. With this combination of funding potential, a local project with Federal assistance means that the local municipality pays 25% of the 35% for the Federal project’s “Local” share or 8.75%. For every million dollars of project cost the local share is $87,500. This has been the deal of the century for many New Jersey coastal communities between Sea Bright and Cape May Point.