Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit
We are dedicated to restoration, research and educating people about the protection of coastal wildlife along the Jersey Shore!
#savecoastalwildlife
BREAKING NEWS & VOLUNTEER INFORMATION FROM THE EDGE OF THE JERSEY SHORE!
GET INSPIRED & DISCOVER WAYS TO GET INVOLVED!
Exciting news!
'Wild Blue & You,' the documentary film about Save Coastal Wildlife, is screening at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival this Saturday afternoon! Meet director Gavin Shwahla and join Jenna Reynolds for a Q&A session after the film!
Saturday, April 5
4:00pm
Princeton Public Library - Community Room
65 Witherspoon St, Princeton, NJ 08542
EVENT IS FREE!
Wednesday, April 23
6:30pm
Keyport Borough Hall
70 W Front St, Keyport, NJ 07735
Join Steve Knott, a board member of Save Coastal Wildlife and a local fish expert. He will talk about a new project called Eels in the Classroom. Working with school teachers, this program offers a chance to spotlight American eels and inspire a new generation of environmental stewards both locally and regionally.
Join Jenna Reynolds for a talk on How Nature Heals: Forest Bathing and Mindful Birdwatching
Wednesday, April 23
7pm
Atlantic Highlands Arts Council
54 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716
Discover how immersing yourself in nature to experience its sights, sounds, scents, and textures can potentially reduce stress and improve well-being.
Public Comment Open until April 10 to Protect Atlantic Spiny Dogfish
Tell the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) council that the allowable harvest level for Atlantic Spiny Dogfish in 2025 needs to be ZERO! Once the most abundant shark species in the world, populations of Squalus acanthias have declined significantly. They are classified in the IUCN Red List of threatened species as Vulnerable globally and Critically endangered in the Northeast Atlantic, meaning stocks around Europe have decreased by at least 95% due to overfishing. We don’t want that to happen here!
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IN-PERSON VOLUNTEER TRAINING TO MONITOR HSC THIS SPRING.
All volunteers with Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit who wish to monitor horseshoe crabs this spring are required to be trained. During a training session, people will learn how to record data and tag horseshoe crabs for an upcoming project.
VOLUNTEER TRAINING VIDEO TO MONITOR HSC THIS SPRING.
All volunteers who are interested to monitor horseshoe crabs this spring along Raritan Bay & Sandy Hook Bay, NJ, must be trained before joining Save Coastal Wildlife, either by watching a 60-minute training video or attending a 60-minute in-person training session in April.
OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE AWESOME!
Thanks to the over 50 people that gave up a little bit of their Saturday morning on March 22 to help cleanup and restore one of the largest intact tidal wetland areas along Raritan Bay in the Borough of Union Beach, NJ. All together we collected nearly a ton of trash and debris to make this tidal wetland area safer for wildlife to find food and raise a family this spring! Great teamwork!
Save Coastal Wildlife conducts public cleanup events once a month. Please join us in April for Earth Month. We will be at the Bayshore Waterfront Park on Sunday, April 27.
THE GREAT SPRING SKATE & WHELK EGG CASE HUNT IS ON!
Every March, April and May, explore a springtime beach and become a community scientist by helping Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit find and record Skate or Whelk egg cases!
Save Seahorses: Report Your Sightings!
If you come upon a seahorse (live or dead), please record your sighting to Save Coastal Wildlife so we may keep track of the location, and abundance of seahorses.
Stop octopus farming before it begins and takes a hold along the Jersey Shore. Once it begins, it will be very difficult to stop!
URGE NJ LAWMAKERS TO BAN OCTOPUS FARMING!
Thank you to the Friends of Island Beach State Park in NJ for inviting Jenna Reynolds, Exc. Director of Save Coastal Wildlife, to talk about horseshoe crabs on March 23. Over 30 people were in attendance, and many of them expressed an interest to help us monitor horseshoe crabs at the park this spring. Thank you for your support and gift of friendship!
Volunteers wanted to help conduct a biodiversity study of the Absecon Inlet. We will explore The Cove Beach area in Brigantine, NJ, which has been historically a hot spot for birding, crabbing, and fishing. Bring binoculars if you have them. If not, no worries.
Saturday, April 19 from 11am to 12:30pm.
GPS Address: 33 Seaside Road Brigantine, NJ 08203
Celebrate Earth Day by helping to cleanup and restore a bayside beach along Sandy Hook Bay in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown Township, NJ.
Sunday, April 27
10am - 12pm
Bayshore Waterfront Park, 719 Port Monmouth Rd, Port Monmouth, NJ
Sunday, April 27 at 8:30pm is when Save Coastal Wildlife will begin another season monitoring horseshoe crabs along the edge of Sandy Hook Bay & Raritan Bay, NJ. Make sure your flashlight is fully charged and you are signed up to receive emails from Save Coastal Wildlife about the latest volunteer activities. You Don’t Want to Miss All The Fun!
GET A FREE SIGN TO HELP PROTECT HORSESHOE CRABS!
Does your town or bayside community organization have horseshoe crabs nesting on a beach during the spring. If so, please contact Save Coastal Wildlife. We will provide a free sign for you to install and put your logo on to help educate people about the importance of protecting horseshoe crabs and their diminishing nesting areas.
Volunteers needed!
Help Save Coastal Wildlife cleanup and restore Plum Island at Sandy Hook National Recreation Area. This natural area is an important place for mating horseshoe crabs and nesting birds. Saturday, May 10, 10am to 12pm. We will meet in Parking Area B near the Bathroom Pavilion.
STOP GHOST FISHING!
Ghost fishing occurs when derelict fishing gear, including nets, traps, and lines that have been lost, discarded, or abandoned, continue to trap and kill marine animals. Ghost fishing, caused by lost or discarded fishing gear, is estimated to kill at least 136,000 seals, sea lions, and large whales annually, with an undetermined number of other marine animals also injured or killed. Picture is of a dead shark in a lost fishing net.
Windmills are not killing Whales!
Don’t believe the hype and the false information the fossil fuel industry and their friends are putting out about renewable energy killing wildlife, especially offshore wind killing whales. Only people are killing whales from speeding ships that are ramming into whales, the ingestion of microplastics causing whales to get sick or commercial fishing gear entangling whales and causing them to get injured and die.
Support us!
Donors are at the heart of everything we do at Save Coastal Wildlife!
Save Coastal Wildlife does not exist without your support. Help fund our important research and community science activities to protect biodiversity along the Jersey Shore and understand better essential coastal animals including horseshoe crabs, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, ospreys, seahorses, and others.
Don’t Miss Your Opportunity To Help Coastal Wildlife!
Sign up with your email address to receive the latest coastal wildlife news and updates about volunteer and citizen science activities with Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit.
We only send information about volunteer and community science activities via email.
Discover the most recent information before anyone else!
FEATURED COASTAL WILDLIFE
VOLUNTEER!
Wildlife Cannot Wait Any Longer.
Volunteering with Save Coastal Wildlife is a great way to help the coastal plants and animals you love while making friends and discovering more about the Jersey Shore.
Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit leads citizen-science, education and conservation programs to help protect the fragile coastal biodiversity of the Jersey Shore and to get people outdoors to better understand our natural environment and the ways in which humans, plants and animals (from the largest to the smallest organism) are inextricably intertwined and impacted.
Since 2018
Save Coastal Wildlife Nonprofit has been dedicated to educating people about coastal biodiversity and restoring habitat along the Jersey Shore - from Raritan Bay to Delaware Bay, New Jersey.
We inspire action for greater preservation and empathy for the beautiful biodiversity along the Jersey Shore and our blue planet!
Save Coastal Wildlife is made up of animal lovers, educators, scientists, surfers, naturalists, community leaders and many other people devoted to the protection of the Jersey Shore’s biodiversity.
Save Coastal Wildlife takes action through education, restoration & research!
Threats to Coastal Wildlife
Expanding development, increasing human populations and plastic pollution, and the strengthening effects of global warming and other human induced activities, including bycatch and ghost gear from commercial fishing, and the commercialization of our marine environment, are putting great pressure on many plants and animals, and the coastal-estuarine environment in New Jersey.
Sub-adult Bottlenose dolphin found dead along the Navesink River 2008.
In 2019 The Atlantic Horseshoe Crab Population
in the New York City region, including Raritan Bay & Sandy Hook Bay in New Jersey, has trended downward from good, to neutral, and now poor as per the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Decreasing fish species along the Jersey Shore:
adult weakfish populations have been on the decline since 2003, and adult winter flounder populations have been steadily declining since the early 1980s, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
Great Egret with a neck injury. Cause unknown.
Over 30 Species of wildlife
that breed, migrate or overwinter along the Jersey Shore are listed by the State of New Jersey as endangered, threatened, or a species of special concern including several species of whales, turtles, and coastal birds.
Over 600% along the New Jersey Shore
is the percentage of tidal flood events that have increased in the past 60 years due to sea level rise from melting land-based glaciers in mountainous and polar regions in the North Atlantic, especially Greenland, due to global warming.
Injured female harbor seal with fresh wounds caused by a boat propeller.
Over 70% of Seabird & Shorebird
populations have declined in the past 50 years in the United States as they compete with people for food and space to rest and feed during migration.
Over 120 mortalities of Humpback, Minke, and Northern Right whale species
have occurred in the New York-New Jersey Bight since 2017 with many showing evidence of human interaction, either ship strikes or entanglement in commercial fishing gear.
The carcass of a juvenile humpback whale. Cause of death undetermined, but likely hit by a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
More Insights About Coastal Wildlife
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”
~ Quote from Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962).
