Climate Change

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.

 

Climate Change

By JJ Egan, Field Specialist of the Barnegat Bay Partnership

The black drum (Pogonias cromis) is a large member of the family Sciaenidae, more commonly known as the drum or croaker family. This family gets their name from the deep sounds they make by vibrating muscles around their swim bladders, and the black drum are no exception, creating low frequency sounds that can not only be heard but felt through the hull of a boat. They are bottom feeders (though schools are sometimes seen milling about on the surface), that feed primarily on clams, crabs and oysters. While they don’t have particularly strong jaws, they use their pharyngeal teeth in their throats to break up these hard-shelled prey. These fish are known spring & summer visitors of the Barnegat Bay, however they have become more prominent recently. While the fish have a range from the Gulf of Maine to Argentina, it was rare to see juveniles in our local waters prior to 1998. Since then, surveys have started to see adults and juveniles alike. The adult drum enter the bay in late March and early April to feed and spawn, usually found in the lower Barnegat/ Great Bay. These locally spawned juveniles spend the summer in the bay (we actually see them every year in our seining survey) and eventually leave in the fall.

Black Drum fish being held up by a fisherman in a boat.
Black Drum caught
in the Barnegat Bay

The most famous and largest spawning aggregation on the East coast occurs a few miles south of our local waters, in the Delaware Bay. The fish usually arrive around the first full moon of May, and stay in the bay feeding and spawning until Late June. It is not entirely clear where the drum go when they leave the bay, but recreational fishermen do occasionally report encountering them throughout the summer and on nearshore structures. The Barnegat/Great Bay aggregation has fewer fish than the run in the Delaware Bay, and the fish tend to be smaller (10-25 lbs). Black drum in the Delaware Bay regularly exceed 40 lbs. and every year angler encounter fish that approach 100 lbs.

Large fish being held up by a fisherman in a boat.
Black Drum caught by BBP’s Field Specialist JJ Egan in the Barnegat Bay near Seaside Park, NJ.

 While the main body of drum in our local waters are usually found further south in our watershed around Tuckerton, this year has been unusual not only in the number of drum, but in their location. Large numbers of drum have been found significantly further north in the bay than in years past. While it’s a faux pas to fishermen to give away the exact location, a large number of drum were caught within sight of a certain Ferris wheel. This sent local tackle shops into a fury trying to stock as many fresh clams as they can get their hands on, a favorite drum bait for anglers. Despite the excitement among recreational fishermen this season, larger black drum are not usually valued as food fish, because they tend to be infected with parasitic worms. The rule of thumb for most fishermen, is that if a drum still has its stripes (the fade with age) then they are still fit to consume. A popular dish with drum fishermen in South Jersey is actually Black drum parmigiana, which is surprisingly good.

While the events of this spring do not necessarily mean that the population of black drum is expanding north, there has been a trend of southern species becoming more and more common in our local waters. This is most likely due to a changing climate, and we will likely see other changes in the estuarine ecosystem in the coming years.

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black drum