May 20, 2026

8.66 Tons of Litter Removed – Looking Back on the 2026 Barnegat Bay Blitz

by Caroline McFarland

cattus bbp blitz 2026 1

Throughout April, Earth seems to be on everyone’s minds. Our planet. Our home. Earth Day, April 22, has reminded us for 56 years that we all live on one planet, and we need to take care of it. There is only one planet Earth, and there is no “Planet B.”

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Photo: Caroline McFarland. Seagull with trash. Barnegat Light.

There is also only one Barnegat Bay. The Barnegat Bay, loved by locals and tourists alike, serves as both an essential wildlife refuge and an immense recreational hub. The Barnegat Bay Watershed includes part of the globally recognized Pine Barrens ecosystem. What do you see when you look at the bay: glistening water, squawking seagulls, and scurrying ghost crabs? What about litter?

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, but all water is connected. When it rains, water flows over land and roads and trickles into storm drains, rivers, and streams. Trash travels through the same storm drains into local streams, rivers, and eventually into the bay and the ocean.

A Blitz Captain picking up litter from the bay.
Photo: Chelsea Pula, Point Pleasant Beach Blitz Captain.

A Community Coming Together

For 15 years, the Barnegat Bay Blitz has brought the community together and reminded us to look around. Sometimes, it is easy to overlook small pieces of plastic on the beach. But once you start to notice litter, it’s easy to see it everywhere.

This past April, 795 volunteers came together to make a difference during the Barnegat Bay Blitz, which ran from April 11 through April 26. Led by 44 dedicated team captains, groups tackled a total of 55 clean-ups in the Barnegat Bay Watershed across 24 municipalities. The total amount of litter removed was 17,324.9 lbs. (8.66 tons). You can find a list of data on our website.

Tackling Tough Cleanup Tasks

While most of the litter included plastic bottles, candy wrappers, and takeout containers, indicative of litter thrown from vehicles or blown away from residential household bins, there were also some unusual and interesting finds.

Surprising finds included an entire piano in Waretown, porcelain toilet bowls in Toms River and Waretown, a vintage army figurine in High Bar Harbor, and Christmas decorations in Lavallette and Stafford. Volunteers removed boat cushions and shotgun shells in Loveladies.

loveladies 12
Photo: Blitz Volunteers, including Tanara Hall from Ocean County Clean Communities and Ben Wurst from Conserve Wildlife, in Loveladies. 

Blitz volunteers also faced difficult hauling tasks at several secluded locations where industrial and residential renovations were illegally dumped. 143 plastic plant pots were recovered from the Freehold location, and multiple bicycles, milk crates, chairs, and mailbox posts were found across sites. In Ship Bottom, a massive section of a floating boat dock, along with 2 large dock poles, was removed. Dumped floor tiles were removed from Eagleswood, and a granite countertop was removed from Wall Township.

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Photo: NJDEP Staff, Blitz Captain Stephen Bogan Carrying a Countertop, Wall Township. 

Key Takeaways for a Cleaner Bay

Some key takeaways from this year’s Blitz: Small actions make an immense difference. Take extra care to make sure your candy wrappers don’t fly out of your car window. Make sure your holiday decorations are secure in high winds. If you don’t want a piano anymore, consider donating it instead of putting it in the woods. If you are unsure how to recycle or dispose of something, check out Ocean County Clean Communities’ amazing recycling guide.

And remember, keep looking around. Think of the fish swimming safely below the glistening water’s surface. Notice the seagulls who won’t be eating those tiny pieces of plastic removed during the Blitz. And watch the ghost crabs scurrying, not on litter, but simply on soft sand.

A big thanks to our partners at Ocean County Clean Communities and the NJDEP for their assistance in coordinating this effort!

Explore More Insights from Barnegat Bay

Dive deeper into the ongoing efforts to protect and restore our environment with more updates and initiatives that you can take part in. Check out our latest blog posts for valuable tips and insights.

View All

UNKNOWN

There is limited data available to quantify Wetland and Riparian Buffer Preservation, or updated data to quantify Wetland Acreage. The BBP has obtained funding and will begin assessment efforts for both targets, in the next few years.

 

 Hard Clam abundance has not been updated since 2012. Recovery of the stock will be guided by the Fishery Management Plan for Hard Clams, which is under development with the NJDEP, BBP, and other organizations. Reclam the Bay and other partners have continued to plant clams for restoration purposes. Continued plantings in strategic locations which maximize survival and reproduction is one strategy to pursue in the coming years. This work can use a model developed by Rutgers with BBP funding which identified areas where planted clams could have the greatest dispersal of their larvae and thus potentially maximally contribute to the recovery of the stock.

 Water Withdrawals were over the target in the 2021 report; USGS has not yet completed its latest update, so a definitive determination of status is not available. However, additional NJDEP data show that it is likely that we continue to not meet the target. Per capita water use has gone down, demonstrating the effectiveness of water-saving appliances and practices, but that decrease has been offset by population gains. 


IN PROGRESS

New maps quantifying Submerged Aquatic Vegetation extent were developed, but poor image clarity resulted in a high degree of uncertainty in the total acreage. NJDEP and Rutgers are working to resolve the uncertainty of these maps, and improve the total acreage estimate. Funding has also been obtained for further research and restoration activities. Several groups are developing potential restoration actions.

The USGS has completed the first phase of its study to identify minimum ecological flows in select Barnegat Bay tributaries. USGS scientists compared streamflow statistics between historical and current time periods to better understand trends in watershed flow conditions. This work provides a foundation for developing ecological flow targets in the Barnegat Bay watershed.  Similar to SAV extent, funding (approximately $450K) has been obtained by the BBP to complete the remaining phases necessary for threshold determination.

 

TARGETS ACHIEVED

No targets can be considered “Achieved” at this time.

 

NOT ACHIEVING

Several Public Swimming Beaches exceeded their safe swimming standards more frequently than during their baseline time period (2016-2018).

While most beaches are routinely safe for swimming, several problematic areas such as Beachwood, Hancock, Windward, and several lake beaches need track-down studies and restoration to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.

Acres of Approved Shellfish Waters decreased from the last report. While this decrease was small, it represents a loss of previously approved waters. Similar to public beaches, track-down studies and restoration work are needed to pinpoint and address sources of bacteria.

 

8.66 Tons of Litter Removed – Looking Back on the 2026 Barnegat Bay Blitz

Throughout April, Earth seems to be on everyone’s minds. Our planet. Our home. Earth Day, April 22, has reminded us for 56 years that we all live on one planet, and we need to take care of it. There is only one planet Earth, and there is no “Planet B.”

dsc 0941 cm
Photo: Caroline McFarland. Seagull with trash. Barnegat Light.

There is also only one Barnegat Bay. The Barnegat Bay, loved by locals and tourists alike, serves as both an essential wildlife refuge and an immense recreational hub. The Barnegat Bay Watershed includes part of the globally recognized Pine Barrens ecosystem. What do you see when you look at the bay: glistening water, squawking seagulls, and scurrying ghost crabs? What about litter?

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, but all water is connected. When it rains, water flows over land and roads and trickles into storm drains, rivers, and streams. Trash travels through the same storm drains into local streams, rivers, and eventually into the bay and the ocean.

A Blitz Captain picking up litter from the bay.
Photo: Chelsea Pula, Point Pleasant Beach Blitz Captain.

A Community Coming Together

For 15 years, the Barnegat Bay Blitz has brought the community together and reminded us to look around. Sometimes, it is easy to overlook small pieces of plastic on the beach. But once you start to notice litter, it’s easy to see it everywhere.

This past April, 795 volunteers came together to make a difference during the Barnegat Bay Blitz, which ran from April 11 through April 26. Led by 44 dedicated team captains, groups tackled a total of 55 clean-ups in the Barnegat Bay Watershed across 24 municipalities. The total amount of litter removed was 17,324.9 lbs. (8.66 tons). You can find a list of data on our website.

Tackling Tough Cleanup Tasks

While most of the litter included plastic bottles, candy wrappers, and takeout containers, indicative of litter thrown from vehicles or blown away from residential household bins, there were also some unusual and interesting finds.

Surprising finds included an entire piano in Waretown, porcelain toilet bowls in Toms River and Waretown, a vintage army figurine in High Bar Harbor, and Christmas decorations in Lavallette and Stafford. Volunteers removed boat cushions and shotgun shells in Loveladies.

loveladies 12
Photo: Blitz Volunteers, including Tanara Hall from Ocean County Clean Communities and Ben Wurst from Conserve Wildlife, in Loveladies. 

Blitz volunteers also faced difficult hauling tasks at several secluded locations where industrial and residential renovations were illegally dumped. 143 plastic plant pots were recovered from the Freehold location, and multiple bicycles, milk crates, chairs, and mailbox posts were found across sites. In Ship Bottom, a massive section of a floating boat dock, along with 2 large dock poles, was removed. Dumped floor tiles were removed from Eagleswood, and a granite countertop was removed from Wall Township.

img 8691
Photo: NJDEP Staff, Blitz Captain Stephen Bogan Carrying a Countertop, Wall Township. 

Key Takeaways for a Cleaner Bay

Some key takeaways from this year’s Blitz: Small actions make an immense difference. Take extra care to make sure your candy wrappers don’t fly out of your car window. Make sure your holiday decorations are secure in high winds. If you don’t want a piano anymore, consider donating it instead of putting it in the woods. If you are unsure how to recycle or dispose of something, check out Ocean County Clean Communities’ amazing recycling guide.

And remember, keep looking around. Think of the fish swimming safely below the glistening water’s surface. Notice the seagulls who won’t be eating those tiny pieces of plastic removed during the Blitz. And watch the ghost crabs scurrying, not on litter, but simply on soft sand.

A big thanks to our partners at Ocean County Clean Communities and the NJDEP for their assistance in coordinating this effort!

Contact 8.66 Tons of Litter Removed – Looking Back on the 2026 Barnegat Bay BlitzContact 8.66 Tons of Litter Removed – Looking Back on the 2026 Barnegat Bay Blitz
cattus bbp blitz 2026 1