Study Finds Bulkheads Hurt Barnegat Bay 

Barnegat Bay biologist Paul R. Jivoff has completed a study that compares the amount of underwater life in front of Barnegat Bay artificial bulkheads to what he finds off natural salt marsh shorelines, and the difference is stark. 

"In front of a marsh or a beach, you can find maybe 28 or 26 species. You're down to 18 in front of a bulkhead," said Jivoff, an assistant professor at Rider University. Moreover, the numbers of fish and animals themselves are much lower in front of the artificial walls -- and those bulkheads now line about 36 percent of the bay's shoreline. Similar studies in other estuaries have prompted fisheries scientists to suspect that widespread coastal development has an impact on ocean life. Important food and sport fish species, such as summer flounder and black sea bass, spend their juvenile life stage in shallow bays such as Barnegat, where they depend upon the marshland plant matter as a foundation for the food web.

Asbury Park Press 2006

For more information on ways to naturalize or stabilize shorelines, contact F. X. Browne, Inc. at info@fxbrowne.com.