By MARIA SCANDALE

This February, for the first time in some 35 years, an in-depth study of Barnegat Bay fish and crabs will begin, to gauge how well species have survived among more and more human neighbors.

The “Assessment of Fishes and Crabs’ Responses to Human Alteration of Barnegat Bay” is part of the broad action plan that Gov. Christie announced in December 2010 to address the health of the bay.

The state-funded study is one of 10 tasked to “Fill in the Gaps on Research.” In turn, research is one of 10 action plan items in Christie’s Comprehensive Barnegat Bay Plan.

“There have been no comprehensive studies of their populations since the 1970’s when increasing human density and urbanization occurred,” described the state Department of Environmental Protection, on the fish/crab study’s part in the big picture.

“The goal of this project is to determine how the fish and crabs of Barnegat Bay responded to this urbanization by comparing the temporal (annual, seasonal) and spatial (along the gradient of urbanization) variation in the bay.”

Rutgers University Marine Field Station, a research outpost at the end of Great Bay Boulevard in Little Egg Harbor, will gather the data, along with Rider University scientists, who will focus on the crab aspect.

Field station Director Kenneth W. Able took time from a busy work schedule elsewhere this week to give The SandPaper an interview via telephone.

The SandPaper: Would you give us an overview of the project that will take place here on Barnegat Bay?

Able: We’re doing an evaluation of fish and crab abundance relative to what we say is urbanization, or a development gradient.

The northern part of Barnegat Bay is urbanized, but as you go south, it becomes populated with fewer and fewer people, so what ecologists will try to do is by sampling fish and crabs in their environment from the northern part of the bay to the southern part of the bay, we’ll see if that human development has an impact.

SP: This scope of a study has never been done before, correct?

Able: The bay, despite its importance, has been infrequently studied, and yet we need to know more of the basic attributes, or components, of the bay in order to make informed management decisions.

SP: Is the bay the spawning ground for these species that will be examined?

Able: Some spawn in the bay and some are spawned elsewhere but they grow in the bay; they refer to those areas as “nursery areas.”

SP: Isn’t it difficult to interpret results when different areas of the bay are so diverse from each other? Some are more populated than others, and so forth?

Able: There are population differences and a lot of other variables – that’s one reason it hasn’t been done, because it’s not so easy.

There are differences in depth, habitat type, proximity to inlets, circulation patterns, and we’re going to have to try to filter all those out in order to answer the basic questions.

It’s not a simple thing to do, and that’s why it’s going to require probably three years of study.
SP: Do you mean it will take three years for the fish and crab survey alone, or for all of the bay study projects to be completed?

Able: The aim is for all of the components (of the 10 total study projects, see below) to be involved in three years, and it’s a work in progress.

In a sense, we’ve already started, by looking at study sites and so on, but the actual formal sampling will begin … in February and continue this summer.

The research will be done by technicians from Rutgers University Marine Field Station and volunteers. We have a number of volunteers who come to us through the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. They have been helping us for a number of years, and they’re central to getting the labor intensive sampling done.

SP: What species of fish will you be studying?

Able: We will be sampling the larvae, juveniles and adults of all species of fishes and blue crabs and that includes winter flounder, summer flounder, weakfish, tautog – a lot of the economically and ecologically important species of the bay, and of course, the blue crab, which is very important. Dr. Paul Jivoff at Rider University is heading up the blue crab part of it. The blue crab is a commercial and recreational species that is a very big component of the fisheries in Barnegat Bay.”

SP: Where in the bay will these samples be taken from? Are any of the locations around Long Beach Island?

Able: There are a number of sampling sites. You can’t sample everything, so we’re going to sample five clusters all the way from the head of the bay down to Little Egg Harbor. One cluster will be right inside Barnegat Inlet; another will be about halfway down Long Beach Island, and a third cluster will be near Holgate, in the inlet there and over into Little Egg Harbor and up near Tuckerton Creek. Two clusters in the upper part of the bay will be one off Point Pleasant and another in vicinity of Toms River.

SP: So, you’re excited that this study is going to be done?

Able: Quite clearly, it has needed to be done for decades.

* * *
Apart from the Rutgers/Rider assessment of fish and crabs, nine other separate research projects are planned to encompass a range of bay life and how it interacts.

One study will probe the new abundance of stinging jellyfish. Another will investigate why the hard clam stock has decreased by nearly 67 percent from 1986 to 2001. To draw closer to that answer, scientists will look at water conditions relating to the hard clams’ food intake.

Another study will delve into the wetlands. “Over 28 percent of Barnegat Bay’s tidal marshes were lost to development between 1940 and 1970,” said the action plan. “However, recent studies show that wetlands in Barnegat Bay can absorb and bury 80 percent of the nitrogen entering it from upland sources, buffering the waters from potential eutrophication effects (e.g., harmful algal blooms, anoxia, fish kills). Specifically, the study will enhance our understanding of the nitrogen uptake, burial and removal services provided by the coastal wetlands.”

Together, the research agenda will “help address how we improve water quality and advance habitat restoration on the Bay, and establish baseline conditions of the Bay,” summarized the DEP.

When Christie outlined his action plan, the premise was that Barnegat Bay is already troubled waters. “The ecological health of Barnegat Bay is in decline, threatening the economic health of the region. 

“Long appreciated for its great aesthetic, economic and recreational value, an array of human impacts potentially threaten the ecological integrity of this backbay system,” the DEP’s statement added.

Along with the move to “Fill in the Gaps on Research,” the nine other comprehensive action plan items in the governor’s plan are: “Close Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant” (the state has negotiated and entered into an agreement with Exelon Corp. to cease electric generation operations at the Oyster Creek Generating Station within nine years), “Fund Stormwater Runoff Mitigation Projects,” “Reduce Nutrient Pollution from Fertilizer,” “Require Post-Construction Soil Restoration” “Acquire Land in the Watershed,” “Establish a Special Area Management Plan,” “Adopt More Rigorous Water Quality Standards,” “Educate the Public” and “Reduce Water Craft Impacts” (through dedicating a conservation zone).

The action plan agenda is further detailed at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/barnegatbay.

mariascandale@thesandpaper.net