Division of Fish & Wildlife P.O. Box 400 Trenton, NJ 08625-0400 walk-in at 501 E. State St., 3rd Floor Director: 609-292-0891 General information: 609-292-2965 njwildlife@nac.net
A boarding party from the Revenue Cutter Morris prepares to board the passenger vessel Benjamin Adams on 16 July 1861 about 200 miles east of New York. The Benjamin Adams was bound for New York from Liverpool and carried 650 Scottish and Irish immigrants. The Revenue Cutter Service was originally established to enforce U.S. laws at sea and inspected incoming merchant vessels for compliance with those laws, as is illustrated here.
The Texas Star was built in 1977 on a multi-purpose supply ship hull, probably to service offshore oil platforms. The vessel was refitted as a floating casino in 1986, originally named Millionaire’s Casino, out of Savannah Georgia, but later moved to Texas and renamed Texas Star Casino. “The 12,000 square-foot vessel is slated to feature games such as craps, blackjack, roulette, poker and slot machines, with a bingo parlor situated on the nearby dock.”
A biological colonization study of experimental reef habitats in temperate ocean waters off New Jersey was conducted over a 96-month period. A total of 145 different taxa of 9 phyla were identified within the experimental units, including 42 arthropoda, 37 annelida and 43 molluska. Individual organisms had an estimated mean abundance of 534,566 organisms/m2 of habitat footprint, including 105 fish, 4,639 crabs and 14 lobsters. Colonial organisms covered 87,554 cm2 of the habitat surface area. Mean total biomass of the organisms inhabiting the units was 84,175 g/m2, with blue mussel comprising 63 percent of the total. The carrying capacity of the experimental habitat for all species of marine life was about 152,801 g/m2. Predation accounted for an 80 percent reduction of biomass between surfaces exposed and not exposed to predators. There were no statistically significant differences in biological colonization rates of sessile epibenthos on concrete, rock, steel and rubber substrates. On an equivalent area basis, the biomass enhancement ratios of the experimental reef habitats over surf clam-dominated and polychaete/crustacean-dominated sand bottom habitats ranged from 35 to 1,124 and 2,773 to 3,200 times, respectively. A simplified, three-tiered reef habitat food chain consisted of 84.5 percent sessile/sedentary invertebrates, 11.0 percent mobile invertebrates and 4.5 percent juvenile and adult fish. The results suggest that complex reef habitats provide both attachment surfaces and refuge habitats that support a diverse and abundant marine life community.
Habitat: Soft sandy bottoms, depths from shallows to 1400 ft.
Notes: Potentially dangerous
The commonest inshore ray. Long smooth whip-like tail with stinger but no fins. Roughtail Stingray similar but larger. Smaller Atlantic Stingray and larger Southern Stingray may occasionally stray this far north as well.
Eat or Be Eaten: Survival of the Fittest on an Artificial Reef
A Frilled Anemone ( Metridium senile ) our largest and most common anemone
The classical, textbook version of a typical marine food chain is a link-by-link progression from plankton to sardine to mackerel to tuna. If only adult life stages are considered, then this straightforward illustration has merit. In actuality, however, predator-prey relationships in the ocean are very diverse and very complicated.
Every fisherman has his favorite fishing area and thinks that it would be the perfect spot for an artificial reef. “Why don’t you build a reef here?” they ask.
Obviously, the State could never satisfy every New Jersey angler with his own pet reef. Besides that, there are many constraints that limit both the number and location of ocean reef sites. New Jersey now has a network of 15 reef sites, evenly spaced from Sandy Hook to Cape May. In its original plan, the Reef Program estimated that 14 or 15 sites would be needed to provide access to anglers and divers from every New Jersey inlet.
