NJ's Coastal Environment

Marine Life in New Jersey

New Jersey’s coastline stretches 127 miles from Sandy Hook in the north to Cape May in the south. While the coast is home to more than fifty towns and cities, the waters just offshore are teeming with a wide variety of marine life.

Coastal waters, which stretch from inland rivers and bays out to the edge of the continental shelf, are among the most biologically productive areas of the world. While these waters are only about 10 percent of the ocean’s surface area, they contain almost half of all the microscopic plants in the seas.

Photo Credit: CGP

NJ Wildlife Spotlight: Marine Mammals

Humans aren’t the only mammals that enjoy New Jersey’s Atlantic coastline.
A wide variety of marine mammals visit the New Jersey shore year round.

Photo Credit: NOAA

The best time to see humpback, fin, and right whales along the New Jersey coastline is in the fall.

Harbor Seal. Photo Source: Andreas Trepte

Harbor, harp and grey seals are mostly commonly found along Barnegat Bay and New Jersey's northern coastline. Populations from Maine and Eastern Canada often spend their winter months along the Jersey shore!

Photo Credit: NOAA NMFS

In the summer, dolphins are often seen frolicking along the New Jersey shore, particularly to the south near Cape May.

Eco-Profile:

The Hudson-Raritan Estuary

The Hudson-Raritan Estuary is where the Hudson, Hackensack, Passaic, Rahway, and Raritan rivers come together and mix with the Atlantic Ocean.

The Hudson-Raritan Estuary contains one of the best natural harbors in the world and is home to the Port of New York and New Jersey, the third busiest in the United States.

While serving the New York metropolitan area, most of the port facilities are in New Jersey, making it a key economic contributor to the Garden State.

The Hudson-Raritan Estuary is also heavily polluted. Lax pollution laws in the late 19th and early 20th century and nearly constant ship traffic have significantly impacted the area.

The Hudson - Raritan Estuary is one of the busiest ports in the US.

Oyster serve as a natural form of water filtration. Photo Credit: National Museum of the American Indian

Just one oyster can filter 50 gallons of water per day, explains the NY/NY Baykeepers, which is leading efforts to return oysters to the bay by creating sustainable habitat in order to monitor and improve the health of the estuary’s eco-system.

Wildlife Spotlight: Oysters

Oysters are a keystone species and are important to the survival of the estuary ecosystem as a whole.

They provide an important food source and habitat for many other creatures. Oysters also act as a natural filtration system for polluted water by straining nutrients from water as they feed.

Oyster reefs were once plentiful in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. Unfortunately, due to their popularity as a food source and the use of their shells for building materials and chicken feed, the oyster population was greatly reduced by the end of the 19th century. Intense pollution in the area during the early 20th century also contaminated the oysters, creating a public health problem.