The New Jersey Coastal Resilience Collaborative (NJCRC) recently reorganized with a new leadership structure that includes four members of the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI). As its co-managing director, UCI Associate Director Tom Herrington will help oversee the consortium’s day-to-day activities. UCI Director Tony MacDonald, who had previously served for several years as the organization’s co-chair, will sit on its newly formed Board of Directors.
Under the new structure, the leaders of the NJCRC’s various workgroups are also automatic members of the board. UCI Coastal Resilience and Restoration Practitioner Meredith Comi serves as the NJCRC’s Ecological Restoration and Science Workgroup lead while UCI Communications Director Karl Vilacoba is its Communications Workgroup lead.
The NJCRC is a network established to foster sustainable and resilient coastal communities and ecosystems by generating informed action. Its partnership includes over 80 academic institutions, businesses, NGOs, advocacy groups, state agencies, municipalities and regional planning groups.
When oysters are in the market for a home, do they prefer new construction or resales? An experimental research project at Sandy Hook aims to find out.
On July 16, a team of community volunteers, students and scientists from the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI), New Jersey City University (NJCU), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium recovered a formation of concrete blocks called oyster castles that had been submerged along a secluded beach on Sandy Hook Bay for a year. The project is being led by NJCU Associate Professor Allison Fitzgerald with co-principal investigator and UCI Coastal Resilience and Restoration Practitioner Meredith Comi.
The group formed a line to the installation and passed each block down to the shore, where the growth on them was inspected and catalogued. Each piece was covered with organisms like mussels, barnacles, sponges, tube worms, and algae.
The blocks were transported to the nearby NOAA James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory at Sandy Hook and placed in tanks, where oyster larvae will be introduced to the waters and monitored for several weeks. Alongside clean, bare castles, researchers will study whether or not all those other animals (‘fouling organisms’) are detrimental to oyster larvae looking to recruit back to the reef.
The project was initiated because researchers have observed that as reef structures have been deployed in the wild, oysters will colonize initially, but less and less each year thereafter. The team hopes to determine whether and why oysters lose interest or have trouble attaching to the blocks once they’ve been fouled.
“Is that level of growth inhibiting the larvae from growing? And if so, what does that mean for these restoration projects?” Comi asked. “There’s no data on it. These projects are all in their infancy, and three, five years out, people are noticing these things.”
“This project not only allows us to investigate more into the longevity of restoration practices, but also to get a recent biodiversity estimate of animals living near shore on submerged substrate,” Fitzgerald added.
An unexpected finding was that the blocks on the bottom of the stacks were almost entirely covered by sand. This raised the question of whether they sunk in place or naturally accumulated sediments, which would have implications for oyster castles’ effectiveness as coastal resilience measures. UCI Associate Director Tom Herrington believes it is more likely the latter, because had they sunk, the depths of the blocks would not likely have been as uniform.
Comi said the team plans to monitor the tanks daily through the early fall, and the results may open new scientific questions.
Rachel Forbes, an environmental justice scholar and 2011 graduate of the Monmouth University School of Social Work’s Master of Social Work program, has joined the Urban Coast Institute (UCI) as its community engagement and outreach specialist. In this role, Forbes will support the UCI’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant-funded work to provide coastal resilience planning support for environmental justice communities in New Jersey.
Forbes is a professor of the practice of social work at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work where she has led the integration of environmental justice into social work curricula and programming. She is also a social work doctoral student at the School of Social Work at Sacred Heart University where her research explores the impacts of environmental justice and climate change on mental health outcomes. Forbes has also supported the development of a bachelor’s degree program in sustainability studies at Colorado Mountain College in Western Colorado. She is co-editor of the recently published book “Ecosocial Work: Environmental Practice and Advocacy,” which delves into the intersection of environmental concerns and social work practice and calls upon social work professionals to engage in ecosocial work practice.
Environmental justice, or EJ, focuses on addressing disproportionate impacts that people including communities of color, persons with disabilities, women, aging populations, and those who don’t speak English are more likely to face from environmental problems. A society striving to build more resilient communities has an ethical and moral responsibility to consider the needs of those who face inequities as a result of having less social and economic capital at their disposal, she said.
“Environmental harms and environmental privileges are not equally distributed across populations and we know that certain populations bear the brunt of environmental harms,” Forbes said. “These are also often the communities that are least likely to actually be contributing to those harms.”
Through the NOAA project, Forbes and the UCI will partner with local leaders and residents, as well as planning and resource experts, to produce climate adaptation plans that foster equitable community resilience. The project will pilot methods for engaging stakeholders in socially vulnerable communities, who are often difficult to reach in planning processes. The community-centric engagement and planning process will develop resilience and adaptation plans that can serve as a model for disadvantaged and environmental justice communities throughout the state.
“You can’t really talk about the environment without talking about climate change,” Forbes said. “We know that these are communities that are going to be hit harder by the challenges that they face, whether it’s an acute weather event like a hurricane, or other issues like toxic dumping, air pollution, food security and water contamination.”
Forbes, a longtime resident of Belmar, was first drawn to EJ issues while a MSW student at Monmouth, where she concentrated in international and community development. At the time, she interned for the International Federation of Social Workers at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, and also spent time in Guatemala studying issues surrounding youth homelessness.
Forbes is an appointed member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Commission on Educational Policy, the inaugural cochair of the CSWE Committee on Environmental Justice, and a former member of CSWE’s Council on Global, Learning and Practice. She was the taskforce cochair for the CSWE Curricular Guide for Environmental Justice (2020) and was an elected member of the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers Board of Directors. She has taught coursework on sustainability, ecological justice, culture and place-based equity, and fostering sustainable behavior across undergraduate and graduate programs for over 10 years. Her work has been published in “Environmental Justice” and has been funded by the CSWE Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work. She is co-author of the book: “The Intersection of Environmental Justice, Climate Change, Community and the Ecology of Life” (Springer Press, 2020).
Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute Communications Director Karl Vilacoba provided a beginner’s tour of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal in a June 25 edition of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean’s “How Tuesday” webinar series. The webinar demonstrated how to use the Portal’s tools and collection of thousands of interactive maps depicting marine life distributions, fishing grounds, vessel traffic patterns, offshore wind proposals and much more.
Vilacoba serves as the Portal’s project manager. For additional information about the Portal, email kvilacob@monmouth.edu.
Three Monmouth University student researchers presented posters at the Sixth Annual Mid-Atlantic Ocean Forum, held May 13-15 in Lewes, Delaware. Hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO), the Forum is the region’s premier annual event dedicated to ocean planning, gathering ocean professionals and stakeholders representing federal and state agencies, Tribal entities, marine industries, nonprofit research and advocacy organizations, and the public. The poster session was organized in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS).
Presenting were Diederik Boonman Morales, a rising senior in the Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy (MEBP) program; and May graduates Marie Mauro and Ivy Norton, who were also MEBP students. Watch their presentations below.
Microbial Community Composition Analysis in Coastal Lakes of New Jersey as an Indicator of Harmful Algal Bloom Formations
Student Researcher and Major: Diederik Boonman Morales, Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy
Faculty Mentor: Endowed Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf, Department of Biology
Abstract: Coastal lakes are unique and important ecosystems, providing numerous benefits ecologically, and to the local communities. However, the health of these ecosystems is threatened and facing gradual degradation due to human activities, polluted water runoff, and Harmful Algal Bloom formations. HABs are complex phenomena that impact waterbodies and can have ecological and anthropogenic impacts. Genomics approaches of microbial community composition can improve our ability to monitor and understand HAB dynamics. Here, environmental DNA (eDNA) samples collected from three coastal lakes in 2021 and 2022 were analyzed by 16s meta-barcoding to examine the spatial and temporal distribution of microbial community composition. Through NMDS (Non-parametric Multi-Dimensional Scaling) ordinations and K-means clustering, the composition can be reduced to a single variable that can more easily be analyzed and spatially represented. A pipeline was created to seamlessly run the same process to analyze future samples. This study will contribute to the conservation and management of these critical ecosystems, providing a better understanding of the roles of microbial communities in coastal lake ecology.
Assessing Policy Measures for Managing Climate Induced Fish Habitat Shifts
Student Researcher and Major: Marie Mauro, Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy
Faculty Mentor: Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Peter Jacques, Department of Political Science and Sociology
Abstract: Marine fisheries play a crucial role for both nutrition and economic prosperity in the United States. Anthropogenic climate change has been pressuring critical fish species to shift their habitats due to rising ocean temperatures. As a result, fisheries have to adapt which include relocating to alternative locations. The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the primary federal law that governs fisheries in the United States. The goal of this research was to analyze if the federal policies of the United States are adapted to accommodate the shifting habitat of fish which is necessary for maintaining the integrity of fisheries. A policy analysis method was employed to identify if federal policies have taken the shifting habitats of marine fish due to climate change into account with the most recent editions. Results indicate that climate change has not been directly addressed in most federal policies regarding fisheries management. The impacts of climate change already have induced changes in fisheries which is why it is necessary for federal policies to be updated.
Current Paradigm Affecting the World’s Fisheries
Student Researcher and Major: Ivy Norton, Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy
Faculty Mentor: Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Peter Jacques, Department of Political Science and Sociology
Abstract: In the contemporary world, the status of our fisheries emerges as a paramount concern, besieged by overfishing, pollution, and dwindling biodiversity. This poster confronts the critical issue of fisheries mismanagement by investigating its core values. To answer the question, “What are the dominant values that manage world fisheries?” I use a quantitative content analysis of one of the more important international fisheries documents published every two years by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, The State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA Reports), using a proven dictionary from prior publications on this very issue in (Lobo and Jacques 2017 & Jacques and Lobo 2018. The publication’s data ended in the 2016 SOFIA report, and this work extends to the 2022 report to measure changing values across time. In particular, I analyze whether the economistic paradigm those prior papers found is still dominant, or if other paradigms have displaced the drive for economic growth. Thus, central to our inquiry is the exploration of alternative frameworks that challenge the economistic paradigm, emphasizing principles of sustainability, equity, and ecological resilience. By investigating and analyzing values in these documents, I can theorize the root causes of overfishing and environmental degradation. Early indications are that economism has not been displaced, indicating a need for a shift in policies and decision-making pertaining to fisheries management. Ideally one day we will have access to fisheries that are healthy and abundant while still being able to rely on them as a source of food around the world.
A free screening of the documentary “We’re All Plastic People Now” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 16 at Monmouth University’s Young Auditorium. Introduced by actor and environmentalist Ted Danson and directed by Rory Fielding, “We’re All Plastic People Now” investigates the hidden story of plastic and its effects on human health. A panel discussion with New Jersey experts on plastics will follow the hourlong film.
The event is being hosted by Oceana, the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter, Surfrider Foundation Jersey Shore Chapter, Save Barnegat Bay, Clean Water Action, Save Coastal Wildlife, Clean Ocean Action, Beyond Plastics, and the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute.
The Young Auditorium is located in Monmouth University’s Leon Hess Business School (Samuel E. and Mollie Bey Hall). Visitors can park in Monmouth’s main campus lot, accessible via the Larchwood Avenue entrance (click here for map).
“Hooked on Environmental DNA: Reeling in Community Scientists for Fisheries Monitoring of Offshore Wind Development” was presented on April 24 by Monmouth University Endowed Professor of Marine Science Jason Adolf, Urban Coast Institute Community Science Coordinator Erin Conlon, and Laboratory Intern Emma Najarian. The webinar was part of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s “Earth Day, Every Day” webinar series, which continues through June. Click here to view a schedule of upcoming sessions.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a non-extractive method of monitoring fish community composition that can be done by community scientists and professionals alike. The presentation covered a fisheries monitoring program, run by Monmouth University and funded by the New Jersey Research and Monitoring Initiative (RMI), that employs eDNA analysis and includes a role for community scientists.
The Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) and the Global Ocean Forum (GOF) co-hosted the webinar “Catalyzing Party and Community Action on Ocean, Climate and BBNJ” on April 18. The webinar focused on addressing the ocean-climate nexus across the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Sustainable Development Agenda, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and the Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement. It also highlighted the significance of the BBNJ agreement to ocean and climate action, encouraged incorporation of ocean-climate actions in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and fostered collaboration and collective engagement on the road to the U.N. Ocean Conference in 2025.
The discussion was moderated by UCI Director Tony MacDonald and GOF Executive Director Miriam Balgos. Presenters and topics included:
Independent international expert and former U.N. Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea Director Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli: “The BBNJ Agreement: The Race to Ratification by 2025 and Implications on Climate Targets”
Ocean Conservancy Senior Manager of Climate Policy Whitney Berry: “Tracking Ocean-Based Mitigation and Adaptation in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)”
Ocean and Climate Platform Project Officer Cyrielle Lâm: “Mobilizing Civil Society on the Road to UNOC 2025”
The webinar was the first installment of an Ocean and Climate Action webinar series that the UCI and GOF are jointly organizing in alignment with the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Vision 2030. The webinars aim to mobilize civil society around critical ocean and climate action identified in the report on Assessing Progress on Ocean and Climate Action 2022-2023 (“ROCA” report). The ROCA report reviews progress made on climate and ocean initiatives, making it a useful tool for discussion of strategies for achieving climate goals moving forward.
Speaker Bios
Miriam Balgos, Ph.D.
Miriam Balgos is executive director of the Global Ocean Forum and concurrent project manager-capacity development specialist of a GEF-funded project on Building and Enhancing Sectoral and Cross-Sectoral Capacity to Support Sustainable Resource Use and Biodiversity Conservation in Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. Formerly associate scientist at the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, University of Delaware and the program coordinator of the Global Ocean Forum, Balgos led the Gerard J. Mangone Center for Marine Policy team in the organization and conduct of multi-stakeholder dialogues in integrated ocean and coastal management. Her research focused on integrated ocean and coastal management, marine protected areas, marine areas beyond national jurisdiction, and climate change adaptation. She co-authored and contributed to various publications including “A Comparative Analysis of Ocean Policies in Fifteen Nations and Four Regions” and co-edited the Routledge “Handbook of National and Regional Ocean Policies.” Miriam received a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and master’s in marine biology from the University of the Philippines, and a master’s in business administration and Ph.D. marine studies at the University of Delaware.
Whitney Berry
Whitney Berry is a senior manager of climate policy at the Ocean Conservancy. Berry helps research, formulate, and advocate ocean-climate policy at the international, federal, and state levels. Her portfolio includes ocean-based mitigation and adaptation solutions to combat climate change. Previously, she worked for the State of California’s Natural Resources Agency as a cabinet-level climate change policy manager within the office of the Ocean Protection Council. Prior to her position with the California Natural Resources Agency, Berry was a California Sea Grant Fellow for the California Ocean Protection Council. She graduated from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies with a master’s degree in international environmental policy and a concentration in Ocean and Coastal Resource Management. She received her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University in Natural Resource Conservation and Environmental Analysis.
Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli
Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli has been working in the field of ocean affairs and the law of the sea, including on issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, for most of her career. She was director of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, United Nations from 2013-20 and Secretary of the BBNJ Intergovernmental Conference from 2018-20. Before that, she worked in the division for 23 years, including as deputy director and chief of the Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs. Goettsche-Wanli is an alumnus of the National University of Ireland, Galway, and of Columbia University, New York.
Cyrielle Lâm
Cyrielle Lâm works as an international mobilization and communication project officer. She also assists the head of mobilization and communication regularly. Lâm holds a master’s degree in international relations with a specialization in international programme management from the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3. Since her studies ended, she has been working for non-governmental organizations in environmental protection.
Tony MacDonald
Tony MacDonald is director of the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI). He was previously the executive director of the Coastal States Organization (CSO) from 1998-2005. CSO, based in Washington, DC, represents the interests of the governors of the nation’s 35 coastal states and territories on coastal and ocean policy matters. Prior to joining CSO, Tony was the special counsel and director of environmental affairs at the American Association of Port Authorities, where he represented the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) at the International Maritime Organization on negotiations on the London Convention. Tony also practiced law with a private firm in Washington, DC, and served as the environmental legislative representative for the Mayor of the City of New York.
Take a look back at a year of student and faculty partnerships, community engagement, and impactful coastal and ocean research in the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute’s (UCI) 2023 Annual Report. The document offers a concise overview of the UCI staff’s expertise and activities over the last year, including an infographic on pages 6-7 that effectively answers the question, “What does the UCI do?”
The report is available in digital flipbook and PDF formats:
A new tide gauge installed for Long Beach Township by the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) is now collecting round-the-clock data for conditions in the southern reaches of Little Egg Harbor.
UCI Associate Director Tom Herrington and Marine Scientist Jim Nickels recently assembled the instrument and mounted it to the bulkhead behind the Long Beach Township Marine Education & Field Research Field Station, located in Holgate. The tide gauge will improve the availability of real-time information for boaters, fishers and others using the waters for recreation, while also collecting data that will help determine how climate change is influencing water levels in the area over the long term. It was purchased with a grant from the National Coastal Resilience Fund (NCRF).
Herrington has been working with Long Beach Township, the New Jersey Bay Islands Initiative (NJBII) and several other external partners to develop a restoration plan for the region’s marsh islands, which provide critical ecological benefits and protect nearby communities from flooding, coastal storms and climate threats. Much of Herrington’s work has focused on Clam Cove Island, located just south of the tide gauge. Natural restoration strategies piloted there will inform approaches taken at marsh islands throughout Barnegat Bay and other estuaries in New Jersey.
Until about five years ago, Clam Cove Island wasn’t an island at all, but a small hook that visitors could walk across to go fishing. Today a small stream bisects the tract and is causing it to erode.
“I think Hurricane Sandy tipped it over,” Herrington said. “It didn’t create the breach, but it removed a lot of the sand that surrounded it and made it much more vulnerable.”
Over the last year, Herrington has worked with Monmouth University marine and environmental biology and policy students Tyler Barkey, Alexis Baumgartner, Nicole Cappolina, and Brooke van de Sande to collect data on waves, tides and currents at the island to determine how sediments move within the system. The findings are informing a plan for the island’s restoration, which will be released in the spring. Herrington said the goal is to repair the breach, make the beach accessible again, and stabilize the hook through methods including replanting marsh grasses and installing oyster reefs off its shore that will help control erosion.
According to the NJBII, 13 bay islands have succumbed to sea level rise since the 1970s and those remaining have lost 7 percent of their acreage from wave action produced by storms, wind and boat wakes. The organization estimates that Long Beach Township alone has lost nearly 40 acres of its bay islands to erosion since 1977.
Herrington said the gauge will fill important knowledge gaps for tide intervals in the Long Beach Island area. Although gauges were already in place at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve in Tuckerton (5 miles south of the field station) and the Manahawkin Bay Bridge in Ship Bottom (8 miles north), the tides can actually peak and ebb 1.5 to 2 hours apart, respectively, at the two sites.
“We’re learning that the tides in Tuckerton are heavily influenced by waves, but not Ship Bottom,” Herrington said. “But we don’t know yet whether they will be at the new station in Holgate.”