​On your mark, get set, run over to the registration page for the 2nd Annual Lobster Run. Registration for the 5k Run/Walk to Care for the Coast opens Wednesday, Feb. 1.

The event will be held Saturday, April 15 in Asbury Park, NJ, with a time-trial start any time from 9-10 a.m. The course is a down-and-back on the beautiful Asbury Park boardwalk and registration can include a lobster or vegetarian breakfast buffet.

​Bring your binoculars and join us on a trek through Sandy Hook to observe the seals and waterfowl that overwinter in New Jersey. Seal and winter waterfowl walks are scheduled for 10 a.m. on the following days: Friday, Feb. 3, Wednesday, Feb. 15, Saturday, Feb. 25 and Monday, March 6.

A nor’easter hammered the east coast from the Delmarva Peninsula to Maine on January 23-24. The weather event spawned winds in excess of 60 mph in New Jersey, along with torrential rain, rough surf and coastal flooding throughout the regions.

The American Littoral Society has been working for years on projects intended to protect beaches and restore wetlands. In the Delaware Bay area of New Jersey the Society has been constructing off-shore reefs designed to lessen the force of waves hitting the shore and reduce the effects of storm surge. In Spring Lake, NJ the Society just finished construction of a fish passage that will not only improve water quality in a coastal lake, but also reduce flooding the surrounding communities. In New York City's Jamaica Bay, the Society has been rebuilding saltmarshes because they protect the mainland as a buffer against coastal storms and flooding. Both reefs and marshes also provide excellent homes for all sorts of wildlife.

The day after the storm, American Littoral Society staff visited restoration sites around Delaware and Jamaica bays, and Spring Lake's Wreck Pond to see how things held up and gauge whether the work help provide any protection.

​On Saturday, January 16 the American Littoral Society held a training session for people who would like to be part of the citizen science monitoring program at Wreck Pond.

Additional training sessions are scheduled for January 21 and 28 at 10 a.m. in Spring Lake Borough Hall, 423 Warren Avenue, Spring Lake, NJ. At them volunteers will be trained in the tests they need to conduct and how to use the equipment that will be provided.

Wreck Pond is a 73-acre coastal pond located on the border of Spring Lake and Sea Girt, NJ. The American Littoral Society, in partnership with several public and private entities, helped construct a fish passage that will connect the pond to the ocean. The passage — made from 600 feet of box culvert — will improve water quality in the pond, provide better flood control to the surrounding area, and allow fish to move into and out of the pond.

Those who become Wreck Pond Citizen Science Monitors, will help us gain valuable information on the effects of the fish passage on pond water level, salinity and temperature. Bird monitors will help track long-term use of the pond and the surrounding areas by shorebirds including endangered Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) and threatened Red Knots (Calidris canutus). The information collected in this program will ultimately assist us in determining the overall success of the project.

If you are interested in becoming a Wreck Pond Citizen Science Monitor or would like more information, please contact Julie Schumacher at: Julie@littoralsociety.org.

A bill to ban possession or sale of shark fins are on the agenda for the New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste Committee on Thursday January, 19.

The American Littoral Society continues to support passage of bill A3945 (and its counterpart in the state Senate, S2044) because eliminating the market for shark fins is crucial to shark protection. Approximately 100 million sharks are killed globally each year, and one of the major incentives for this is the shark fin trade. Bill sponsors are Assemblymen Reed Gusciora, Herb Conaway Jr., and Nicholas Chiaravalloti.

Welcome to our new website.

The American Littoral Society was founded in  1961 when a bunch of skin-divers stuck their heads under the water at Sandy Hook, NJ, and became intrigued by what they saw.  The Society's mission is to protect the coastal and ocean environments; to educate policy makers and the public about those environments; and to restore them in any way we can.

On this new website you'll be able to see what programs we run and what projects we're working on, whether beach restorations, dune grass plantings, oyster reef contruction, beach clean-ups or educational walks. We also work to influence state and national policies to protect and improve the coast and ocean.  

We now work out of six locations in four states, but because fish, birds and other creatures don't recognize geographic boundaries our work is done up and down the east coast of the United States. 

We are a membership driven organization and we rely on our members to support our efforts, both through financial support and volunteer involvement.  If you aren't a member already. we'd love for you to join us, donate to the cause, or volunteer your time.  

In an age when climate change and sea level rise are rapidly changing the coastal environment, our work has never been more important and with your help we can make the coastal and ocean environments better places.

Please look around this website and we're certain you'll see something that will make you want to join our efforts to make the coast a better place.

​Thanks for visiting.