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ALO 2007 Fall Newsletter Articles
International
Coastal Cleanup
Again
this September, the Alliance for a Living Ocean coordinated the Ocean
Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup for the southern Ocean
County area. The other coordinators in New Jersey were Clean Ocean Action and
NJ Department of Environmental Protection. The purpose of this program,
according to the Ocean Conservancy, is to not only pick up trash but to create
solutions to the problems of solid waste and litter. The program also educates
people about the harm done to the coastal environment, including the sea
creatures, by human carelessness. Last year over 350,000 people worldwide spent
one day picking up over 7 million pounds of trash. Over 4 million pounds were
removed from the shores of the United States of which 18 thousand pounds came
from the NJ cleanup. A positive aspect of identifying problem trash is that
changes can be made. Tabs on beverage cans no longer can be pulled off, and
many of the six-pack beverage cans no longer have plastic collars. Both of
these items caused problems or death to sea life. Shore communities have also installed covered
trash cans on or near their beaches.
This
September, ALO had 45 people picking up trash. Each participant turned in a
data sheet that recorded the amount and type of trash they picked up. As of the
end of September the volunteers picked up almost 85 pounds of trash. As in all
the other years, the high runner was cigarette butts with 2,500 items picked
up. The other high runners were bottle caps and food wrappers. The lowest item
was one pair of men’s boxer shorts.
Here
are some facts that appeared in the 2006 International Coastal Cleanup Report.
Did you know that the most numerous debris items that were found last year were
cigarette butts, food wrappers, beverage containers, and straws, just the same
as ALO found this year. The most dangerous items were balloons with their
ribbons, fishing lines and nets, six-pack beverage holders, and plastic items
of all kinds. This type of marine debris has killed over 1 million seabirds and
100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles. Cigarette butts remain the infamous
champions of the trash collection. Almost 2 million were picked up last year.
Barbara Steel, Director of Public Affairs and Tourism for Ocean County, says
that more and more people are stamping out their cigarettes in parking areas
near the coast. One big rain storm and these butts get washed in to the surrounding
bays, streams and ocean.
Cleaning up trash on our beaches is not only a once
a year project. All year long storms batter the coastlines of New Jersey
especially in late winter and spring. The wind and waves wash up a lot of trash
that has been buried under the sand just off shore. In the past, ALO sponsored
an Adopt-a-Beach Program to rid the beaches of trash. To carry on this
tradition, you can help by “adopting” a beach near you, especially in the off
season when the municipalities no longer rake the beaches and the trash cans
have been removed.
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Nitrogen Pollution
Action Program
In
June, a coalition of environmental groups launched the Nitrogen Pollution Action
Program. The objective of this campaign is to significantly reduce the excess
nitrogen in the bay water. This excess nitrogen is radically altering the
ecology of all coastal estuaries including Barnegat Bay. The coalition is
focusing on three action items as a way to begin making inroads in to solving
the nitrogen problem. These include educating the public and elected officials,
holding people accountable for their overuse of products with high nitrogen
content, and encouraging changes in public policy.
In
an article that appeared in the June 18th Philadelphia Inquirer,
William DeCamp of Save Barnegat Bay gave the readers a great summary of the
nitrogen problem including the causes of the increased nitrogen, and the harm
being done to the bay as a result. Mr. DeCamp points out that even though
nitrogen is an essential element to the health of Barnegat Bay, an
overabundance of nitrogen has a very negative effect of the ecological balance
of the bay. He uses the analogy that just as over-fertilizing a garden and lawn
causes too many weeds to grow, so does too much nitrogen in the bay cause
things like greater algae blooms and an increase of stinging sea nettles. As a
result, the bay water becomes murky, cutting down the sun’s beneficial rays
from reaching the life-giving eel grass. The lack of light also has a negative
impact on the bay’s clam, scallop, crab and fish populations. The shellfish
industry has been in decline for several years.
Some of the bay beaches at the northern end of Barnegat Bay have had to
be closed because of the stinging nettles. Current efforts by the Reclam the
Bay organization to increase the number of shellfish in the bay depend on
having good water quality to be successful.
The
Alliance for a Living Ocean is part of the informal coalition supporting the
nitrogen reduction program. We will continue to inform our members about this
program through our newsletter and website, and we will display educational
material at our office. The time to start nitrogen reduction is NOW, not when
it gets further out of hand. Government actions will be only a part of the
solution. Individuals need to take responsibility for their part of the
problem. People who live near the Barnegat Bay and its watershed need to reduce
the amount of fertilizers that they use
on lawns and gardens. This can be done by cutting back on the quantity of
fertilizer used, reducing lawn size by planting bushes and ground covering
plants, especially plants that are suited for shore environments. You can also
use pot gardening. Tomatoes and herbs suited for growing in pots are now
available. For more information about the nitrogen project, see the Save
Barnegat Bay website at www.savebarnegatbay.org.
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Protecting the
NJ/NY Bight
What
is the NJ/NY Bight? It is the area of
the ocean that is bordered by the New Jersey and New York coastlines and the
Gulf Stream. It creates a triangular mini-sea “wedge” that is 19,000 square miles
in size within the bigger Atlantic Ocean. Living in this ecosystem are more
than 300 species of both fish and birds, 7 different species of sea turtles and
many sea mammals including whales, dolphin and seals. But it is not only the
sea life that benefits from a healthy NJ/NY Bight. Think of the millions of
people who enjoy swimming, boating and fishing in this area each season. The
bight provides an economic mainstay to multi-million dollar industries.
Unfortunately
the NJ/NY Bight has suffered from decades of ocean dumping and other forms of
pollution. Members of ALO clearly remember past campaigns to stop ocean
dumping, especially at the HARS dumping site, and the efforts by ALO and other
environmental organizations to close landfills that washed garbage and medical
waste on our beaches. We have accomplished many things, but the work is not
finished. The NJ/NY Bight still continues to be threatened by various sources
of both point and non-point pollution. In order to protect this sensitive area
from polluting activities, federal legislation was introduced in the House of
Representatives in June of 2007 to permanently protect the waters of the NJ/NY
Bight. H.R.2854 is known as the New
Jersey/New York Clean Ocean Zone Act. The Clean Ocean Zone (COZ) is a project
of the New Jersey environment group, Clean Ocean Action. Their efforts are
supported by groups of cooperative citizens and organizations. There are a
total of 102 organizations and 45 municipalities lending their support in
getting H.R.2854 passed. Several years ago ALO joined other environmental
groups and voted to support the Clean Ocean Zone. Other supporting
organizations represent various interests including commercial and recreational
fishing, diving and surfing.
Following
is a brief summary of what is included in the Clean Ocean Zone Act: The bill’s
first objective is to reduce pollution by prohibiting new ocean dumping,
capping the old HARS dump site, and prohibiting pollution from other sources
including wastewater, industrial discharges and stormwaters. Next the bill aims
to protect marine ecosystems by prohibiting activities such as strip-mining for
sand and gravel, and oil and gas exploration and development. In addition, the
bill requires the development of responsible regulations for renewable energy
sources. The last area covered by the bill is to support marine activities
which include recreational and commercial fishing, boating, diving, surfing and
swimming. This legislation will not be used to restrict or limit these
activities. For more detailed information, go to COA’s website at www.cleanoceanaction.org.
To
get the H.R.2854 passed, it must have the support of many individual citizens. All
of us need to contact our US Representative to urge them to support the bill.
It is easy to do. Just send your representative either an email message or a
postcard. You can find both of these addresses on the internet at www.house.gov and search by “Representative by
State”. Rep. James Saxton introduced the same bill in 2006 as a lead
sponsor but has not signed on yet as a
co-sponsor of the 2007 bill. He needs to hear from citizens in his 3rd
district. The address is 2217 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC
20515 (Phone: 202-225-4765 or Fax: 202-225-0778).
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ReClamming Barnegat
Bay
The
Barnegat Bay Shellfish Restoration Program (BBSRP) is another local program
promoting the health and well-being of Barnegat Bay. This organization stresses the fact that
shellfish are a part of the natural cycle of the bay’s environment. The
shellfish remove nutrients and algae from the water which offset the excess
nutrients people add to the bay through their activities.
The
program has as its goals to involve volunteers in the revitalization of the
clam and oyster populations in the bay and to educate the citizens of Ocean
County and the Barnegat Bay Watershed on how they can improve the bay’s ecology
by their stewardship. In the first two years, the BBSRP has constructed six
land based nursery systems and raised over 1.8 million clams and 100,000
oysters. One really fun activity is the initiation of the Clam Trail, a public
art and educational project sponsored by the volunteer group, ReClam The Bay.
Giant models of clams are painted by artists and placed in public locations
near the bay. You can see the clams on Long Beach Island at 10 locations from
the Barnegat Light Borough Hall to Bicentennial Park in Beach Haven. Learn more
about the program and the Clam Trail on the website at www.reclamthebay.org . Volunteers are
always needed to help with the reclaming process.
BBSRP
is part of the partnership between Rutgers Cooperative extension, Reclaming the
Bay, the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program, the Ocean County Freeholders,
and the NJDEP Bureau of Shellfisheries. This summer ALO re-established a
relationship with the BBSRP. Jim Merritt and Rick Bushnell came to one of ALO’s
Stories-by-the-Sea programs to talk to the kids and their parents about the
reclaming process. They told the children about how the little clams are first
raised in land-based nurseries and after 2 years, they are ready to be put in
to the bay. People can buy Reclaming bumpers stickers and tee shirts at the ALO
gift shop in the Maritime Museum at Beach Haven. ALO is also pursuing the
possibility of having summer programs with BBSRP to educate children and adults
about Barnegat Bay’s shellfish population.
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