The bay is an estuary covering 42 miles of New Jersey shoreline from the Point Pleasant Canal to Little Egg Harbor Inlet. The Barnegat Bay Watershed drains approximately 660 square miles in Ocean County, New Jersey. In recognition of the importance of the bay and the restoration and protection activities underway in the bay, Barnegat Bay was admitted into the Environmental Protection Agency s National Estuary Program in 1996. Barnegat Bay is impacted by a vari-ety of human activities. Development contributes to stormwater and nonpoint source pollution and increases runoff by decreasing open space and permeable land.
Development also removes native vegetation, thereby degrading watershed habitats.
Recreational and commercial use of the watershed exacerbates the already considerable natural erosion of Barnegat Bay s embank ments. Dredging and bulkhead construction, while done to enhance the use of Barnegat Bay, often also increase sedimentation in the estuary and accelerate habitat loss. Experiments in Bank Stabilization Elevated levels of sedimentation are especially detrimental in Barnegat Bay because of its natural shallow ness. To counter the effects of sedimentation, the Ocean County Soil Conservation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Ocean County Board of Freeholders worked in conjunction with the National Estuary Program and initiated the Embankment and Restoration Project. The project was designed to coordinate the efforts of watershed stakeholders in bank stabilization and habitat restoration.