​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?

 ​On a blustery Saturday morning, fifteen volunteers met Captain Al and the Restoration Team amongst mountains of whelk shell along the Delaware Bay. The goal of 500 shell bags seemed daunting at first, but our crew of volunteers knocked out shell bags at record speed. Volunteers from McGuire-Dix Joint Base and previous reef builders filled the tubes with shells as the kids loaded the truck with completed bags. Truckloads were delivered to the next lot over where 10 empty pallets were waiting. Over half of the ten pallets were completed before we broke for lunch. Volunteers and staff gathered around Captain Al’s truck where cheese pizza from Dino’s awaited them. Captain Al gave a brief talk about the three reefs that have been built already and that these 500 shell bags will go towards the 5,000 bags needed to build two more reefs at Thompsons and Dyers, followed by a thank you for their hard work. As the wind began to pick up, staff and volunteers got back to bagging shells and completing the remaining two pallets, plus a little extra for the next round of shell-bagging. As volunteers finished, they expressed interest in helping to build the reefs come April.
 
500 bags down, only 4500 bags to go.

You and your family are “whelk-come” to join American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation for our 2nd Annual Veterans Day on the Bay, scheduled for Saturday, November 12 from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at Moores Beach on the Delaware Bayshore.

This Veterans Day event will dedicate the reef built in April, 2016 at the 2nd Annual Shell-A-Bration, during which volunteers braved the elements and helped build the oyster reef at Moores Beach.

The 1st Annual Veterans Day on the Bay took place on November 11, 2015 at South Reeds Beach. The reef was dedicated to all veterans and highlighted veteran involvement in the effort to restore New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore. Event attendees honored their own military veterans by inscribing that special person's name on a shell and placing that shell on “Veterans Reef.”

This year we’d like to continue to show our appreciation and mark the progress we’ve made by dedicating another reef to a specific military branch. The 2nd Annual Veterans Day on the Bay, which will feature:

• Raw oysters and fare from Spanky’s BBQ
• Beach Clean-up
• Seining
• Arts and crafts for children

​"Every oyster reef we’ve built so far on the Delaware Bay incorporated a different restoration strategy. We have had to adapt new strategies with what has worked best in the past and with what will realistically work based on site conditions. By blending the successes from the previous reefs with innovative approaches, we have been able to construct three reefs to date,” said Capt. Al Modjeski, Habitat Restoration Program Director for the American Littoral Society.

The bayshore beaches need restoration and improved resiliency so that horseshoe crabs have proper breeding grounds. Crab eggs feed migratory shorebirds, like the Red Knot, which stops in New Jersey each spring on its long journey from South America to the Arctic Circle. The Red Knot and other shorebirds help bring $11 million in tourist dollars to New Jersey’s Delaware Bayshore region each year.

"New Jersey's Delaware Bayshore hosts an annual wildlife spectacle of global significance - the time-honored migration of Red Knots to reach the eggs of these ancient horseshoe crabs," said David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey Executive Director. "Volunteer projects like this help connect the people of New Jersey with these endangered shorebirds and the largest population of horseshoe crabs in the world.”

“Originally, this event was a bare-bones volunteer effort of placing shell bags off the Dyers Cove eastern beach," said Capt. Al. "But thanks to a donation from Betancourt, Van Hemmen, Greco & Kenyon, we will have a ‘shell-a-bration’ that celebrates the ecology and community of the Delaware Bayshore."

In 2015, over 130 volunteers and veterans built an oyster reef at South Reeds Beach in the first annual Shell-a-Bration. That same year, Veterans Day on the Bay dedicated the reef to all veterans and highlighted veteran involvement in the effort to restore New Jersey's Delaware Bayshore. The second annual Shell-a-Bration, held in April 2016, saw a handful of dedicated volunteers brave a blizzard to build a reef at Moore's Beach. The third annual Shell-Bration will be held this coming Spring 2017.
 
​"There are many strategies to defend our Delaware Bayshore, but one of the best and most productive are these oyster reefs," stated Dr. Larry Niles, a biologist with the American Littoral Society and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. "They not only replicate a lost but important habitat on Delaware Bay - reefs once covered much of the bayshore - but they provide just enough protection to make a difference in how long our beaches persist against the unrelenting forces of nature. In a way, we are fighting nature with nature."

​The projects are being funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) through their Hurricane Sandy Coastal Resiliency Grants Program, and are being developed in partnership with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife. 

Wednesday, September 7th was off to a bit of a rough start. The docks at Smokey's Marina were rocking and rolling as the waves crashed on the boat ramp, leftover effects of Hermine. The DelBay Restoration team came to a quick decision that it would be best to use a different boat ramp for the day. Although it put quite a delay in our start time, launching from Matt's Landing was quite a bit easier than tackling the ramp at Smokey's. Although the water was calm down the winding Maurice River, the team was met with white caps and rolling waves as the River met the Bay. After a slow, rocking ride to the reef, traps were dropped about an hour before high tide. While the traps soaked, the team took cover in a nearby creek where the water was calm. Due to fear of low water at the boat ramp, the team had to pull the traps early and alas, only a few Atlantic blue claw crabs were recovered.

The team was greeted with calm water and the infamous double-crested cormorants at Smokey's Marina the following day. It was smooth sailing for the DelBay team as they made their way out to the reef and the remaining four traps were pulled with ease. Several feisty Atlantic blue claw crabs were retrieved from the traps, including a few juveniles and one soft shell. A lonely silver perch was identified on the outer reef block that day. As the season starts to change, we hope for a more diverse set of fish.

​On Friday of Labor Day Weekend, I ventured down to the Bay to capture before photos of the restored beaches prior to Hermine. At that time, the path of Hermine was unsure and hitting the Delaware Bay was a possibility. Thankfully, the Delaware Bay area was safe as the storm took a turn out to sea and only left us with an ocean-like surf and some gusty winds. The following Tuesday, I visited those same beaches to see any possible “after” effects. Although the wind was whipping and the waves were surging, our beaches looked practically untouched.

South Reeds: Post-Hermine, the beach appears to have some cutouts in the sand, but not much in the way of erosion. There was a build up of sand in front of the bulkhead near the beach entrance. The waves at Reeds were very violent with about 1.5-2ft waves surging the length of the beach, except in front of the reef. It is rare that we get to witness these kinds of conditions at the reef (although we have a wave attenuator that tracks this data), but the waves were actually a bit calmer in front of the reef and only reached about a foot in height. Due to extra high water, I was unable to explore the conditions of the reef post-Hermine. A reef update will be posted shorlty.

Cooks: Post-Hermine, the water was extremely high even though I was there about 2 hours prior to high tide. The only damage present was in the front of the parking area, the berm had been completely washed over. 

Kimbles: No evidence of erosion post-Hermine, just a very high and thick wrack line. Although I was there 2 hours prior to high tide, the water level was very high and had almost completely washed over the southern end of the beach. The berm in front of the parking area was fully intact and looked untouched.

Moores: There were no signs of erosion as a result of Hermine. The beach and parking area did not suffer any damage. Due to the extreme tide, I was unable to take any pictures of our newest reef post-Hermine. But prior to the storm, the reef seemed to be holding up well with a lot of sediment accruing around each reef block, creating small lagoons where we often find juvenile fish. An update on the condtion of the reefs post-Hermine will be posted shortly.

​On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the Society’s Delaware Bay Restoration Team began trapping for fish on Veteran’s Reef located slightly offshore S. Reeds Beach. As one of the crew said as we headed out from Smokey’s Marina, “ the bay looks like one of the Windows 98 Screensavers. It is so beautiful”. And it truly was a beautiful site. The heat wave had finally passed for the moment, the seas were gentle, and there was enough of a breeze to keep the greenheads partially at bay. Bug spray was still a welcome commodity.
 
Our 19 foot skiff, the R/V Great Auk, was recently de-winterized and was handling beautifully in the semi-glass conditions. We were able to position ourselves over the reef easily as we deployed 9 fish traps on and off the reef site. Besides myself, Shane our Habitat Restoration Coordinator, and Quinn, our Habitat Restoration Technician; we had a new crew member named Jack. Jack is going to be a senior at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology located on Sandy Hook and is working with Capt. Al and others on his senior project about reef biodiversity. He will be a familiar face at many of the sampling events in Delaware Bay and is learning a lot from all of our project team about ecological relationships between bay communities.
 
Once the traps were set, we had about 4 hours before we could retrieve the inshore traps. We leave the offshore traps set for 24 hours but pull the inshore traps since that reef segment will be exposed during low tide.  This gave us time to try a new sampling method and to determine if we include it in future sampling efforts. Tides were at 7’ so we had an idea and opportunity to try. We had borrowed a 16’ otter trawl from our Fish Tagging Program and were curious if we could successfully deploy the gear and catch fish at a control site and then between the reef. I also wanted to figure out a good tow speed. Though we did not catch anything during the first tow, we lengthened our tow lines and increased our speed for the next tow. It was good to know that two people could deploy and retrieve the net easily. As the cod end of the net neared the side of the boat during our second tow, we could feel that it had a little weight and movement to it. As we released the cod end, out fell some small striped bass, a few peanut bunker (menhaden), some blue crabs, Atlantic silversides, and bay anchovy. This tow allowed us to figure out a good towing speed and also proved that we could incorporate this method into our sampling program when able. I was curious if we would catch more than 5 different species between the reefs but would not find out this go around. Shane reminded us that there were still racks in-between the reefs and that they would need to be removed before we could attempt a reef tow. Luckily, they should be removed by the next sampling event so stay tuned to see if there is a difference in species abundance between the reef and the control site.