The mission of the Alliance for a Living Ocean shall be to promote and maintain clean water
and a healthy coastal environment through education, research and active participation.
We recognize the need to manage our entire watershed, bay and ocean since all water flows
from "the raindrop to the ocean".

2008 Events More information, click here. ********** New Summer Program “Shellfish, Fish & a Healthy Bay” Presentation by ReClam the Bay &ALO Sponsored by the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program Learn how baby clams are raised first in land-based nurseries and then in water-based upwellers. When the small clams are large enough, they are seeded in clam beds in the bay and protected from predators. Learn how poor water quality can affect the health of the creatures in the bay, and what each of us can do to protect the bay’s eco-system. Then seine (using hand nets) the bay and experience the sea creatures up close. Thursdays, July 10 thru August 21 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Bay View Park, opposite LBT Municipal Center, Brant Beach Donation $5 per person. ********** Newsletters Spring 2008 Fall 2007 ********** About Us E-mail ALO Trustees, Officers & Staff Membership & Volunteers Intern Information ********** NJ Environmental Links Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program Barnegat Bay Watershed & Estuary Fdn. NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife Clean Ocean Action Save Barnegat Bay  Marine Mammal Stranding Center The Wetlands Institute The Nature Center of Cape May ReClam the Bay American Littoral Society Jacques Cousteau National Estaurine Research Reserve LBI Foundation of the Arts and Sciences

ALO’s Environmental Office 528 Dock Street Beach Haven, New Jersey 08008 Telephone: 609-492-0222 Fax: 609-492-6216 Directions to Office: After crossing the causeway to LBI, go to Long Beach Blvd and turn right. Go to the center of Beach Haven and make a right turn on to Engleside Ave. Drive to the last cross street before the bay and make a right. The Museum of New Jersey Maritime History is on the right across from the Boat House restaurant. ALO is on the second floor. Action Alert – Stop Liquefied Natural Gas Development Two industrial port facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG), a polluting, climate-changing, expensive, foreign fossil fuel, are proposed just off the New Jersey shore and the south shore of Long Island, New York, threatening our beaches, marine life, and economy. LNG is grossly more polluting than domestic natural gas. It increases our use and dependence on foreign fossil fuels, steers us in the wrong direction away from existing conservation, efficiency, and renewable energy technologies & options, and opens the door to offshore oil & gas drilling. More importantly, LNG facilities devastate important fish habitat, and impact endangered and threatened species, damage seafloor habitat, destroy vast quantities of marine life, and create navigational hazards leading to accidents & spills. Please help! Sign the online petition to oppose the offshore LNG ports at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/689151878. Citizens of all ages can sign the petition.  Help us reach and exceed our goal of 25,000 signatures! ALO Earth Day Spring Cleanup It was a beautiful day to celebrate Earth Day as over 75 people helped pick up bags and bags of trash. Local Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts focused on the beaches, while other volunteers, including a large contingent from the Rotary Club, spread out over Bonnet Island. A great deal of the trash picked up that day was items made of plastic, especially plastic bottles, plastic bags and Styrofoam. 90% of all ocean trash is plastic. Some of this trash consists of large plastic pieces, but a lot of it is broken down by wind and salt water to form small but recognizable particles called “plastic soup”. Because plastic does not break down like organic materials do, ocean currents can carry the debris thousands of miles away. At least 267 species of seabirds, turtles, seals, whales and other fish suffer from getting entangled in the debris or by ingesting it. These creatures fill their stomachs with plastics that have no nutritional value and then starve to death. The only way out of this mess is to Recycle, Recycle, Recycle. To stop plastic trash from becoming a scourge on the oceans, it must be recovered and used again and again. In the US only about 20 to 25% of plastic bottles and bags ever get recycled. Worldwide, that number is about 5%. We must do better! Remember this summer to take those water and soda bottles home from the beach and recycle them. Make sure any plastic bags get stowed in trash cans. Some of the beaches on LBI do have covered trash cans so that the trash is not blown back on the sand or carried away by the sea birds. All municipalities should consider using covered trash cans. Hopefully ALO volunteers will have less plastic trash to remove from Bonnet Island and the beaches during next year’s cleanup campaign. Horseshoe Crab Moratorium The protection of the Horseshoe Crab became a big issue this spring in New Jersey. The moratorium that had been in place in NJ was expiring. To continue to protect these ancient creatures, a bill was introduced in to the New Jersey State Legislature. A letter writing campaign in favor of this bill was spearheaded by New Jersey environmental groups including ALO. The American Littoral Society posted the following web message on 4/10/08: “Thanks to overwhelming support from our members, the public, the New Jersey DEP, and the New Jersey Legislature, Governor Corzine has signed into law the bill that will extend the moratorium on the harvest of horseshoe crabs for bait until numbers of crabs and the endangered red knot rebound from the brink of extinction has passed both houses of the NJ State Legislature. This was a very long and hard-won effort and we thank each and every one who made a phone call, sent an e-mail, or wrote an op-ed to make this happen.” Unfortunately, on the day the bill was signed, Senator Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) introduced legislation to drastically change the moratorium.  The story continues… Have a great summer at the beach! Thanks again for your support. Joe LaBella and the ALO Board

www.LBI.NET

Who is glad to host the Alliance for a Living Ocean Website

The Website maintained by the Alliance for a Living Ocean