

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".
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New Summer Program Presentation
by ReClam the Bay &ALO 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 Donation $5 per
person. ********** Newsletters ********** About Us
********** NJ Environmental Barnegat Bay National NJ
Division of Fish and Wildlife Marine Mammal Stranding
Center Jacques Cousteau National Estaurine Research Reserve LBI
Foundation of the |
ALO’s
Environmental Office
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 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 |
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