Friday, June 30, 2006

NJ Kayak

For the second year, kayakers paddled from NJ Kayak’s headquarters in Barnegat to Sedge. This year the group had the wind behind them and was able to make the seven-mile trip in less than two hours. Owners Bill and Carmen Stage were assisted by several of their staff members making this a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone.

NJ kayak brought their own sea kayaks with spray decks and rudders. Using these boats and having expert instruction enabled the group to develop a higher skill level than the average group staying at Sedge. We were able to swap boats to get a feel for different sizes and shapes of kayaks. Bill and his staff helped Sedge staff increase their kayaking skills including work on rolls and rescue techniques. This proved especially useful when fighting the opposing forces of tide and wind on our return from the Dike on Saturday.

In return for their kayak instruction, NJ Kayak staff and clients learned a great deal about the Sedge Island Marine Conservation Zone flora and fauna. We caught and ate clams and several dozen green crabs. We caught and released several short stripers and lost several blue fish. Although the weather was threatening we were able to explore the marsh on several paddle trips between thunderstorms. Everyone (but especially the Sedge staff) were overjoyed to see that the pair of osprey on the new nest closest to our island hatched a single chick on Saturday morning. We all felt like proud parents.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Cranford High School June 16,17,18

This past weekend was an especially special one for me on Sedge Island. This weekend Sedge Island welcomed a group of teachers from Cranford High School, where I teach. With us were Interns Alyssa and Bret and Damian Holynskyj who works for NJ Fish and Wildlife in Trenton.

When we got to Sedge on Friday evening we promptly got in the kayaks and took a tour through the mosquito ditches and got to see the peregrine falcons chasing a great blue heron away from their nest. We dug for some clams and pulled back into the sedge landing with the setting sun.

The next day we got out early and headed through the marsh to the USACE Dike at the Barnegat Inlet. There has been no formal research on the impact of the USACE dyke on the water quality in the sedges right behind the dike, so we brought out our water quality equipment and tested the temperature, nitrates, phosphates, pH and most importantly dissolved oxygen. Last summer during warmer weather the water quality of that area seemed to degrade quickly and this year we will be testing the water at the sedge island dock and the back bay at the dike for comparison.

Last week (see Somorset County Parks) we headed to the dike to look for horseshoe crab eggs that should have been laid on the previous full moon and only found dead females picked out by the gulls. This weekend Bret said he had seen the horseshoe crabs in the rocks that make up part of the dyke. We poked in the rock wall and there must have been a hundred horseshoe crabs stuck in the rocks. We all climbed down and helped to free the ancient creatures and rescued many. There was one crab that I focused on for about 10 minutes, but despite all my effort, I could not free the large female. It was then that I realized so many of these crabs were going to die despite our best efforts. In years past thousands of horseshoe crabs could be seen gathering on the beaches to lay their eggs, and now the beaches have been replaced by the rocks and the horseshoe crabs have not adapted well to the changes. Something tells me that because of this weekend Sedge Island will get more involved with the horseshoe crab effort.

With humans encroaching on so much wildlife in NJ it did not come as a surprise to see an American Oystercatcher nesting about 10 feet from many beach buggies. Someone had built a rock wall around the nest, and while that may seem like a nice gesture for the birds it actually draws more attention to the nest. When we left the beach a gentleman was pointing out the nest to a woman and the birds were off the nest. Tom Virzi who is doing critical research on these birds told us the eggs would not hatch out because the birds have been scared off the nest too many times for the eggs to develop properly.

Back at the Sedge House, many took a well deserved snooze after our 7 mile paddle, and Rich and Carmine joined Brett and Tony in putting out the Marine Conservation Buoys. Linda and Kerith later showed us how the pro’s clam, and Alyssa grilled up a delicious dinner. The night concluded with discussions of an early morning paddle and reflections on the day.


Sunday Morning the group pitched in yet again on the island and helped pick sea stars out from our aquaculture bags. We collected over one hundred of the pesky tube footed creatures and Daphne even collected a few to take home with her! We went seining and caught a whole school of baby blue fish barely an inch long. We all worked together and were able to corral them in to the net. We collected a few specimens for our look tank and released the rest.

It was great getting to know my colleagues in a different light, and I hope this will become an annual trip for Cranford!

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Urban Trekkers June 12-14,2006

The American Littoral Society made it possible for a group of students from Camden’s Urban Promise Academy to spend three days at Sedge.  Prior to their arrival, the students conducted research on animals commonly found in our salt marsh.  On their first day the students met their goals of seeing both an osprey (they saw many osprey- sitting on nests and bringing in fish for their mates) and the peregrine falcon (they saw adults and two juveniles that are almost ready to fledge).  The goal of seeing a live blue fish almost went un-met until on the last morning Brett, our newest intern, landed his first blue fish ever.  Students helped fillet the fish and even tasted small portions of raw fish as they were cleaning it.  Brett got to eat his first bluefish for dinner that night.

Urban Trekkers are an active group of students who leave the city to bicycle, camp, sail and canoe all around the northeast.  We hope they will schedule a trip to Sedge as one of their annual activities.

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Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Somerset County Parks: June 9, 10, 11


On Friday a group from Somerset County Parks paddled the 1.5 miles out to the Sedge Island Natural Resource Education Center in the sedge Islands of the Barnegat Bay. With the guidance of Jim Merritt Program Director, the group paddled through the mosquito ditches and got a closer look at the Peregrine Falcon pair and their 2 new chicks. Jim picked up Sedge Staff member Katina and intern Alyssa from the dock and was lured back to sedge by the wonderful smells of dinner being prepared.

On Saturday with a steady wind blowing out of the west at 20 mph, the group decided to stay on land and circumnavigate the island picking up trash, collecting seaweed for presses and counting dead burrfish. We found about 7 dead striped burrfish, and came up with many hypothesizes of why they may have washed up but could not find any information to support our educated guesses.

Despite being landlocked we managed to catch many green crabs (an invasive species from Japan), conduct water quality testing, make several seaweed presses and identify 7 different species of seaweed, look at many different invertebrates and seaweed under binocular scopes and magiscope microscopes and finally go clamming for chowder clams for dinner.

Sunday the group got up early and although still windy (only 10-15mph) devised a plan to paddle and with the help of Tony the caretaker be able to go directly back to the dock instead of into the wind back to the Sedge House. We paddled down to the Army Corps of Engineers Dyke and beached the boats to search for horse shoe crab eggs hopefully laid the night before on the high tide. Wile walking across the massive geotubes we got to see firsthand the destruction that Mother Nature can inflict upon man made structures. The geotube had been punctured in 2 places causing major breaches in the engineered system. The water still has to break through another layer and massive sand buildup though before breaking clear through to the other side.

On the beach we found many dead female horse shoe crabs picked clean by the seagulls, however to our disappointment we were unable to see any horse shoe crab eggs or even evidence that many birds had been feeding there. On our paddle back we stopped several times to look at the many different osprey in the area and to look at the sedge grasses and organisms within.

As in previous years the group from Somerset County Parks was fabulous and we had a great time with you on Sedge! We look forward to hearing your comments and seeing you in the future!

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Monday, June 12, 2006

Friends of Sedge News

Kathy Johnston Art Work Fundraiser

June 4, 2006 During the time that the AMC was at Sedge, DEP’s Lynette Lurig brought artist Kathy Johnston to the island. Kathy had not been at Sedge for almost a decade. She was so glad to be back that she will consider doing a painting of the area in and around the Marine Conservation Zone with the McLain House as the focal point. We will be discussing this possibility and considering how we might use the painting and associate art work as a potential fundraiser by the Friends of Sedge.


Intern Up-date
Jim and Katina will have lots of volunteer help at Sedge this summer. Four interns will be sharing the work while groups are in residence. Each will have a major responsibility in addition to helping out with the day-to-day chores on the island. We look forward to getting lots more accomplished with this additional help.


We welcome back Carly Coughlin who volunteered for the entire month of August in 2005. Since last summer Carley has completed her senior year at the Ocean County Technical School’s Marine Academy of Technical and Environmental Science. During the winter she presented a paper at a national conference. Having been offered scholarships at a variety of colleges and universities, she has chosen to attend the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Carley will be helping Katina to update our marine science curriculum when she is not teaching or keeping up our science equipment.


Alyssa Tripler lives just across the bay from Sedge in Waretown. She is a senior at Richard Stockton College of NJ, majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Marine Biology. Alyssa helped out with several programs this spring and immediately made herself a strong part of Sedge by doing so much work but also using her culinary skills to produce, among other things, delicious brownies. Alyssa will be helping to develop and organize our files and curriculum library.




Brett Ciccotelli has just completed his freshman year at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. When he is not in class, Brett kayaks and camps in Maine all winter long. Growing up in southwestern, NJ, Brett has worked with a variety of non-profit environmental groups including the Old Pine Farm Natural Lands Trust. Brett will coordinate the aquaculture project and in his spare time will help keep our fleet of boats and kayaks clean and in good repair.



Paolo Stanchi, a summer resident in Mantoloking where he is an avid surfer, will be starting his senior year at Archmere Academy in Delaware. Paolo is using his summer work at Sedge to help decide on a field of study in college. Paolo has already helped out with several programs this spring and has shown himself to be a good teacher and a hard worker. He has risen before sunrise and caught striped bass on several occasions. Paolo will be responsible for care and maintenance of fishing tackle and other equipment in the boat house.

AMC June 2-4

The hearty souls from the sea kayaking chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club paddled out to Sedge Island on Friday evening after a long drive from as far away as Long Island. Rain and windy conditions did not prevent us from starting out on our planned trip to Barnegat Light House State Park. After fighting the current and wind for several hours, we took a lunch break in the rain at High Bar Harbor - less than a mile from our intended destination. We decided to return to Sedge and with the wind at our backs and the tide racing in we returned in far less time.

The AMC has now become famous for spectacular meals and our Saturday night dinner was no exception. Horsdoovors, soup, salad, bread, main course, and desert were spectacular. We were joined for dinner by Pola Galie, Judy Merritt, and Lisa and Jose Fernandez. During our meal we had a brief discussion about how the Friends of Sedge is going and what we might do in the future.

Sunday morning the group paddled to the dike, walked to the beach and returned to the house before lunch. Everyone enjoyed this paddle and even though it was more than seven miles. It was not surprising that the kayakers had enough energy to paddle back to their cars after lunch.

Liz Jackson’s Home Schoolers June 5 & 6

Four elementary school age students and six parent/teachers spent two days at Sedge as a part of their ongoing science curriculum. Division of Fish and Wildlife’s Liz Jackson, who works with the parents and kids on a monthly basis at the Hackettstown Fish Hatchery, coordinated the program. Liz had taught the students some scientific techniques before they arrived at Sedge. While at Sedge Island, they did field work which reinforced prior learning about osprey and peregrine falcon.

Paddling kayaks into the twisting channels carved into the sod banks, they were able to feel like they were almost part of this ecosystem. They got into the environment even more when they snorkeled for almost a full hour in the clear but still chilly bay water. These kids were tough!

On the last day parents, students, and sedge staff all took the stage for individual performances. Each person had to act out the part of one of the animals that they had learned about. The students also had to demonstrate (without talking), some habitat features for their animal. The audience then had to guess which animal they were. In addition to being quite entertaining, this was a very effective method for teaching about our wildlife.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

MATES May 30- June 2

Freshmen from Ocean County Technical School’s MATES program started coming to Sedge the day after Memorial Day. For next three days a new group of seventeen students would arrive at the dock at 8:30 AM. The pontoon boat ride to the island was made especially interesting as we viewed Sea Tow working to re-float a 29 foot twin prop Sea Ray Express Cruiser which had been driven seventy yards up on the marsh during the holiday weekend.

After quickly settling in, the students participated in the “Balance of Nature” team building activity. They then paddled in the marsh creeks past the Peregrine Falcon platform which is now inhabited by at least one small chick which would occasionally emerge from its nest box. They dug huge hard clams on the sand bar west of the house on their return trip to the house. After a quick snack they worked in small groups on a population dynamics study using one square meter quadrats to count mud snails. Before and after dinner there was a little time to fish but only Jim and the lead teacher caught fish and these were stripers of sixteen and twenty inches which were quickly returned to the water. In the evening we had several rousing games of Electric Moon Snail.

This was a very busy week. Trying to crowd so much into a twenty-four hour period is exhausting. But, it was a good introduction to Sedge and hopefully the students will return again as upper classmen.

Rutgers Field Camp

Two groups of students from Rutgers University spent three days at Sedge in late May. Because both Professor Julie Lockwood and graduate assistant Tom Verzi are expert birders and many of the sessions revolved around ornithology. Rising before daybreak, the students kayaked to Island Beach State Park to walk a transect from the ocean beach to the bay. Timed to coincide with the peak of spring migration, both groups saw a wide variety of bird species.

Many students fished and were disappointed not to catch much on hook and line. The big crab trap proved to be much more productive as many green crabs were caught. Students were very helpful in checking bags of 10mm clams to find survivors of a winter spent in a bag covered with mud at the bottom of Barnegat Bay.

This was the second year that Rutgers has brought down a group of students for their field camp course. It is this type of active experential learning that many large universities are cutting back on. When students are fully submersed in the ecology of an area that is when true learning and love of science can really be seen.

Once again it was a pleasure to have wonderful, bright students from Rutgers out on Sedge Island. We look foward to great things to come from all of you.