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By Larry Niles, LJ Niles Associates LLC We leave a cold and dark New Jersey with mixed feelings for our destination to tropical Brazil. It will be warm and sunnyish – though forecasts predict drenching thunderstorms threatening us every day of our trip. We will explore a very new place, the ocean coast of Para, a largely unsurveyed coast known to be a wintering shorebird mecca. At the same time, we will undergo trials experienced by few biologists. Zika is prevalent in Para, but recent cases of malaria are equally alarming. Of course, one must be ever vigilant for food and water pathogens. Last year, I developed food poisoning ending me up in a rural hospital, with a room full of very sick people. On arrival, I wondered what comes next?  A small part of the sprawling city of Sao Jose de Ribamar.
 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.   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: [email protected].   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. |
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