Global warming is changing New Jersey in many ways, and not just for people. Wildlife is feeling the heat too. Fish, birds, plants and other species must respond to temperatures rising, sea levels increasing, and an ever-increasing warming world. During the summer of 2024, staff and volunteers with the environmental nonprofit, Save Coastal Wildlife, conducted several biodiversity studies and surveys of fish, birds and plants in Barnegat Bay and in the Raritan Bay-Sandy Hook Bay estuarine complex. The following information is the result of these activities and observations.

Neglect to give full attention to important environmental stories has only gotten worse over time for nearly every online or print news outlet in New Jersey and especially those covering the Jersey Shore, especially on important issues like global warming and the loss of biodiversity.

Thanks to the difficult work of many marine biologists and citizen scientists, we have a good idea on the lives of lined seahorses during the warmer months of the year. Yet, many questions still need to be answered on what happens to seahorses during the winter?

We are so sick of the lies, false knowledge and yellow journalism being spread by numerous people in the media (both social media and mainstream media) about the death of marine mammals along the Jersey Shore.

For 10 years or more, volunteers with Save Coastal Wildlife have helped to install artificial nesting platforms for ospreys along the highly developed coastline of the northern Jersey Shore.

Join Priya Thamburaj, a graduating student at Biotechnology High School in Freehold, NJ as she discovers how important plankton, small and often mysterious microscopic critters, are to life on Planet Earth.

Whales are one of the most intelligent and awe-inspiring group of animals known as cetaceans to call our oceans home.In 2020, the threat from commercial fishing gear and ship strikes were seen from the death or damage to a variety of juvenile whale species along the Jersey Shore and surrounding waters. Making it a very sad year to be a whale.

Ospreys have a shocking and scary spring migration. It’s not easy being an osprey in the modern world. From habitat loss to poor water quality, intense weather, to illegal hunting, to toxic pollutants and pesticides, to plastics, there are many threats to their survival.

Along the picturesque Jersey Shore, a remarkable drama plays out almost every time someone visits a beach. No matter the season, from summer to spring, people will encounter gulls, erroneously known as seagulls. But can they be all that bad?

There is much to behold and beauty to be found on a winter beach. Even though the temperatures and winds can be a brutal and biting, a winter beach walk has the potential to be among the most satisfying of all natural events during the year. The winter beach is home to a variety of coastal wildlife and a variety of interesting finds.

Atlantic brant (scientific name: Branta bernicla hrota), also known as a bay goose, are common sights and sounds in estuaries along the Jersey Shore during the winter. Yet while you may have heard their call, it’s a goose few people know well. It’s a bird that is sadly fading away.

Every summer a handful of whales wash up dead along the Jersey Shore and on Long Island beaches. Why?

Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla) and Semipalmated Sandpipers (calidris pusilla) are decreasing. 

What’s the problem? There are few current protections in place and horseshoe crab populations are just a small fraction of what they should be. One giant misstep or few smaller mistakes over time and horseshoe crabs could disappear from New York Harbor, including Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay and nearby tidal waters. 

Ribbed Mussels (Geukensia demissa) are slowly declining in estuarine waters along the northern Jersey Shore.

People have long had a fascination and attraction to whales. Similar to California’s Giant Sequoias, whales tell the story of America and our conflicted relationship with nature. Whales are big, beautiful, powerful, awe-inspiring, inquisitive, intuitive, smart and sentient.  Simply put, whales are awesome! But you don’t need to drive all the way up to New England to enjoy an awe-inspiring whale-watching cruise. All you have to do is just make your way to Queens, New York to see the many juvenile humpback whales that call New York Harbor and surrounding oceans waters home during most of the year.