Coast Day in Cape May Set for Oct. 11

NJMSC/NJSG PRESS RELEASE:
Coast Day NJ Returns to Cape May October 11th:
Award Winning Event Will Celebrate the Sea and Ten Years of Success
SANDY HOOK — For the tenth consecutive year, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium/New Jersey Sea Grant (NJMSC/NJSG) and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) Office of Maritime Resources will co-host Coast Day NJ: A Celebration of the Sea on Sunday, Oct. 11 in Cape May at the Lobster House Restaurant Dock and the New Jersey Audubon Society Nature Center of Cape May from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Parking, admission and all activities are free.
Coast Day NJ, the recipient of the prestigious Governor’s Tourism Award for Ecotourism and the Monmouth-Ocean evelopment Commission’s Tourism Achievement Award features family-oriented activities designed to educate visitors about New Jersey’s coastal environment and recognize the state’s rich maritime heritage. The festival showcases New Jersey’s $50 billion coastal economy and has become one of the State’s most popular fall educational environmental events. Coast Day NJ is recognized and highly regarded for its non-commercial, family-oriented focus and continues to attract more participants and visitors each year.
Activities will include hands-on marine science exhibits, demonstrations, eco-tours, crab races, a youth fishing clinic and more. Attendees can pull a seine in Cape May Harbor or go behind the scenes at a fish-packing facility. The New Jersey Audubon Nature Center of Cape May will offer “Explore the Shore Eco-Tours“ throughout the day. New this year, visitors can hop a free trolley shuttle to tour the nearby Multi-Species Aquaculture Demonstration Facility operated by the Rutgers University Haskins Shellfish Lab or take in a crab trap demonstration at the Wetlands Institute exhibit. Event-goers will also have a chance to cast their vote for their favorite entry in the Fifth Annual Coast Day NJ Photo Contest, with its 2009 theme of recreational fishing.
Coast Day NJ event sponsors for 2009 include Boyton and Boyton, Excelon Nuclear, New York Shipping Association, Inc., PSEG, Sun National Bank and Withum Smith and Brown. Among the dozens of participating exhibitors are Cape May County Conservation Committee, Cape May County Beach Plum Association, NJ Audubon Nature Center of Cape May, American Littoral Society, NJ Div of Fish and Wildlife, NJ Sea Grant Extension, Marine Mammals Stranding Center, Mid Atlantic Center for the Arts, National Weather Service, Cape May County Chamber of Commerce, The Wetlands Institute, Stevens Institute of Technology, Richard Stockton College of NJ,, Tuckerton Seaport, NJ Department of Agriculture, NJ Lighthouse Society, AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassador Program, USDA-NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service, NJ Academy For Aquatic Sciences, Clean Ocean Action, Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware River Basin Commission, Ocean County Public Affairs/Tourism, Jacques Cousteau Nat’l Est. Reserve and the NMFS J.J. Howard Marine Sciences Lab.
NJMSC/NJSG is an affiliation of colleges, universities and public sector groups dedicated to advancing greater knowledge of New Jersey’s marine and coastal environment. It meets its mission through innovative research, education and outreach designed to address and encourage coastal sustainability. For more information about Coast Day NJ visit the News and Events page on the NJMSC/NJSG web site at njmsc.org .