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Wreck Pond

Improving habitat, protecting communities

September 4, 2019

9/4/2019

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And just like that, summer is over.

It has come to our attention that we here at the Society have been remiss in our blog posting. Our sincerest apologies. It has not been for laziness. These past few months have been busy and exciting. From fyke sampling, to seining, to growing oysters, to constructing living shorelines out of Christmas trees, we have been hard at work protecting and restoring our coast. And in that excitement and hard work – with several grueling days mixed in – a few things got left to the wayside, or rather, postponed. With that said, dear blog reader, we have some catching up to do:

We have stepped up our citizen science monitoring game. No longer will you see graduated PVC pipes installed throughout the pond. This summer all PVC piping was replaced with metal tide gauges/water level meters. These meters are sturdier and more accurate, and dare we say, easier on the eyes. We have also replaced our analog thermometers with newer, digital versions. Both improvements should allow for easier and more precise measurements, improving the usefulness and accuracy of our data. If you would like to learn more about our citizen science program or volunteer to become a citizen scientist, please contact Julie Schumacher at julie@littoralsociety.org.

Our fyke net surveys ended mid-June. This year we caught 207 alewife, just a few shy of Capt. Al Modjeski’s 2006 record of 229. Despite falling short of the record – we’re coming for you next year Modjeski! – our results are a hopeful sign that the work we are doing is resulting in positive change.

Just as the death of a flower precedes the growing of new fruit (or whatever new beginnings analogy you may like), so too does the end of our fyke net surveys herald the start of our seine surveys. The primary goal of our seining is to catch juvenile alewife before they leave Wreck Pond for the ocean, providing confirmation of spawning success in Wreck Pond. This is not an easy task.  Studies tell us that the majority of juvenile alewife in a watershed emigrate in one or two large pulses. If we miss these pulses, we miss most of the fish. Obviously, timing is critical. For several years we only hit dribblers into the infield, catching one or two juvenile alewife, here or there. However, in 2018, we knocked one out of the park, capturing over 140 juvenile alewife in a single seine pull. Currently, we’re at the plate, dialed in, waiting for that perfect pitch.  Every Thursday we take a swing (seine). If you are interested in volunteering, contact Zack Royle at zack@littoralsociety.org.
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Baseball analogies aside, while we have yet to catch any juvenile alewife, we have noticed some differences in species caught this year as opposed to prior years. Particularly, for much of the summer, we were catching large schools of juvenile white mullet, a subtropical marine fish that can often be found along the Atlantic coast and in brackish estuaries. Mullet feed on algae, plankton, and detritus from mud found on the bottom of estuaries. Additionally, we have caught multiple juvenile northern sennets. Also know as the northern barracuda, northern sennets have elongated bodies and large jaws. They are a schooling species that feed on small fish, squids, and shrimps.
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Northern sennet (Sphyraena borealis​)
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May 13, 2019

5/13/2019

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This week starts our 6th sampling event at Wreck Pond. We've had a very successful year so far, catching 199 alewife to this point. This is more than we have ever caught since we began sampling, and only second to the most ever caught using the same methodology (229 in 2006). Hopefully, we can catch a couple more this year to break that record. Besides alewife, we have also caught lots of white perch, white suckers, and gizzard shad. If you are interested in volunteering during a sampling event, contact Zack Royle at zack@littoralsociety.org
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April 24, 2019

4/24/2019

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In our work at Wreck Pond, we often come across different animal tracks (deer, fox, racoons, etc.). This past week, we decided to set up a trail camera to capture some images of these animal residents. Check out some of our results below:
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April 9, 2019

4/9/2019

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​After a cold start to our Spring sampling season (Wreck Pond was literally frozen), Sampling Event #3 certainly turned the tides. Our fyke net was set up in the evening of 4/3/19. A strong full moon and blow out tide made for calm, low water conditions in Wreck Pond. With warming air temperatures, water temperatures, and diving northern gannets out at sea, the team felt optimistic towards what they would find in the days to come.

​On the morning of 4/4/19, the sampling team was thrilled to find eleven fish in the net, five of which being alewife river herring. The following morning, an additional thirteen alewife were discovered. In total, 24 alewife were captured during Sampling Event #3, 21 of which being successfully tagged. All seemed to have high levels of energy and were of a healthy size.
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Before being tagged, all captured herring are scanned to detect if they had been tagged in a previous season. One fish that was captured during this sampling event showed what looked to be a scar from a previous tagging, however, no tag was detected when scanned. Due to the location and precision of the scar, the team feels confident that this fish had been previously tagged and has returned to the pond in the 2019 season.        

Other fish sampled included white perch, gizzard shad, striped killifish, and grass carps. Additionally several Spring-time fowl have arrived back at the pond including: ospreys, double-crested cormorants, egrets, and oyster catchers. The team is happy to welcome Spring and all it's seasonal residents back to the pond! 

Sampling Event #4 begins with a net set on the evening of 4/17/19 with sampling events happening twice a day between 4/18/19 and the morning of  4/21/19.  For more information on our sampling events or the Wreck Pond project, please contact Zack Royle, zack@littoralsociety.org  ​
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March 14, 2019

3/14/2019

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Hi All! My name is Sydney Sheridan and I am currently pursuing my master’s degree in Natural Resources from Virginia Tech. Through my conservation ecology course capstone project for the semester, I am getting involved with local citizen science. I was lucky to discover the Wreck Pond project and am excited they have welcomed me aboard! As a Belmar resident and lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore, I am eager to help out our local wildlife and contribute to restoring this important ecosystem. Over the next couple months, I plan to participate weekly in the sampling sites at Wreck Pond by collecting citizen scientist data on water temperature, water level, salinity, and site observations. I also intend to help the Wreck Pond team potentially expand upon these parameters, log and assess the data collected, participate in upcoming training sessions, and guest blog here from time to time! If you see me down by the pond, please come by and say hello!
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March 1, 2019

3/1/2019

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Next week marks the start of our 2019 fish sampling season. Throughout the spring we will be setting up our fyke net underneath the railroad bridge in hopes of catching migrating river herring moving upstream to spawn. Last year was our most successful year to date as we caught 149 adult alewife in our fyke sampling and 146 juveniles in our seine surveys.
This year we have revamped our PIT tagging program. We’ve added an antenna to the inside of the culvert. This antenna will help us answer questions such as: what time of day are river herring traveling in the antenna? Are they swimming with or against the tide? And how fast are they swimming? See several pictures of the antenna below.
We have also changed the design of our antenna that we place at the opening of the culvert. This antenna is designed to float on the surface of the pond. It is our hope this antenna will be more resilient to the high flows experienced there.
Stay tuned for more updates on our PIT tagging and sampling results!
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January 7, 2019

1/7/2019

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Happy New Year from the American Littoral Society and the Wreck Pond Restoration Team! 

While we await for the 2019 sampling season to begin, we would like to share some exciting news. On December 10, 2018, the Society received not one, but two Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards (GEEA), the first time since the awards inception in 2000 that a single organization received two in one year. The GEEA Program is New Jersey's premier awards program for recognizing outstanding environmental performance, programs, and projects throughout the state. 

One of the two awards the Society received was in the 'Healthy Ecosystems and Habitats' category for the Wreck Pond Restoration Project. "We're honored to be recognized for a project that is a model for how we can effectively and efficiently plan, fund, and implement a restoration project that helps people and the environment," said Capt. Al Modjeski, Littoral Society Restoration Director.  

We'd like to thank all project partners, volunteers, and the Wreck Pond watershed community who have helped and continue to help in our effort to restore Wreck Pond.

The Wreck Pond team will be in touch next month with details  on the upcoming spring fish sampling season.  We're coming for you 2019! 

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December 4, 2018

12/4/2018

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With temperatures dropping and all 2018 sampling complete, the Wreck Pond restoration team is now inundated with data entry. Months of data collected during the spring and fall fish sampling assessments is being entered and analyzed to see how the seasons compare to previous years. Overall, the 2018 fish sampling seasons proved to be historic. We tagged the highest amount of adult herring since 2006 and caught the largest run of juvenile herring to date. Wreck Pond monitoring is currently funded through 2021. To keep this exciting work going, the team continues to pursue additional funding to extend monitoring for years to come.

This time of year also brings the closing of the 2018 Citizen Science Monitoring season. This year the dedicated volunteers conducted 112 water monitoring assessments and 34 bird monitoring assessments totaling 280 volunteer hours. The data collected has further improved the wreck pond database helping to better identify the improving tidal range, increasing salinity further upstream, Atlantic Ocean - Wreck Pond tidal delay, and seasonal bird species arrival and departure to Wreck Pond. The restoration team is always looking to engage new community members to the program. In 2019, the Wall High School Environmental Club will be assisting with conducting monitoring assessments as well. A few elite citizen scientists also participated in 96 spring fish sampling assessments and 32 fall fish sampling assessments totaling an additional 128 volunteer hours. 
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The American Littoral Society wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. Spring sampling is just around the corner! For more information on the the Wreck Pond Restoration Project, please contact Zack Royle, zack@littoralsociety,org. For more information on the Citizen Science Monitoring program, please contact Julie Schumacher, julie@littoralsociety.org ​​
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September 26, 2018

9/26/2018

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Wreck Pond has had its fare share of excitement in the past month. From flash flooding at the end of August, to some wild finds in the past couple weeks in the seine net. 

On August 20, the Spring Lake area was hit with a rain storm that released a substantial amount of rain in a short period of time. The fish passage culvert was still closed for the beach season, so due to the heavy amount of rain and the restricted ability for the pond to drain, surrounding residents experienced several flooded roads. In response to the rising water, the fish passage culvert was opened and a trench was dug from the eastern Sea Girt side of the pond to the ocean to release the excess water. 
The Wreck Pond team is nearing the last month of their Fall fish sampling season. Each Thursday, the team pulls the 100 foot purse seine net in hopes of capturing juvenile river herring. Although herring haven't been caught since July, there have been plenty of surprises found since. Fun finds the team has caught include: northern puffer fish, Atlantic needle fish, pipe fish, northern king fish, a baby squid, and a commone seahorse (smaller images below).  
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The most unique find to date was captured and released on Thursday 9/20/18. Identifying the mysterious specimen stumped the team, so images were sent to Sandy Hook NOAA fish lab staff for help. They replied confirming the identity of the creature, a Wreck Pond first (large image below), a juvenile mahi mahi! Mahi can be caught off the coast of New Jersey, however, finding such a small juvenile in Wreck Pond was certainly an exciting and special find for the team.

If you are interested in participating in any of the remaining sampling events, please contact Julie Schumacher, julie@littoralsociety.org for more information.
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July 27, 2018

7/27/2018

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While we may have lagged recently on our blog posts (our apologies) the Society has nevertheless been very busy at Wreck Pond. In mid-June, we started our river herring young-of-year (YOY) monitoring. As its name implies, this monitoring targets river herring born earlier in the year, and is complementary to our spring fyke net sampling: whereas the spring fyke sampling lets us know when and how many adult river herring are coming into Wreck Pond to spawn, the YOY monitoring lets us know if the spawning has been successful. The results of previous years’ work indicate that at least some YOY river herring migrate downstream in Wreck Pond in early summer. Because of this, the Society has expanded the timeframe of YOY monitoring to start in early June instead of September as was done the first two years of the survey.
 On July 12, 2018, the Society caught 142 YOY alewife. This is a fantastic catch considering the most we have ever caught for an entire season was five. Further, the following week we caught nine more. In addition to alewife, we have caught a number of other species including Atlantic silverside, stripped killifish, mummichog, northern puffer, and one short bigeye.
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Short Bigeye, Pristigenys alta
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Juvenile alewife, ​Alosa pseudoharengus
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