Jacques Cousteau NERR

Jacques Cousteau NERR Improving management of New Jersey coastal environments through science, education, and stewardship. Stay in the know by bookmarking our Linktree!

https://linktr.ee/jcnerr

Happy Friday! It was a bit grey in our neck of the woods today, so we're bringing you some instant joy. Check out these ...
08/28/2026

Happy Friday! It was a bit grey in our neck of the woods today, so we're bringing you some instant joy. Check out these furry visitors who stopped by yesterday to say hello! ☺️

🎟️ TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE!Our annual RUMFS & JC NERR Open House is back! Join us Saturday, September 12, from 10am–3pm fo...
08/25/2026

🎟️ TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE!

Our annual RUMFS & JC NERR Open House is back! Join us Saturday, September 12, from 10am–3pm for a day of science, exploration, and hands-on fun.

🔬 RUMFS: Reserve your free ticket for seminar-style talks, research highlights, and touch tank!
🌿 JC NERR Coastal Center: Drop in anytime for interactive activities, kids’ crafts and games, guided trail walks, and our new life-sized crab trap game!
🌊 Life on the Edge Exhibit: Explore our interactive exhibit at the Tuckerton Seaport.

Tickets are required for RUMFS only. No registration is needed for the JC NERR Coastal Center or Life on the Edge Exhibit.

Learn more and reserve your tickets today!
https://jcnerr.org/jacques-cousteau-reserve-rutgers-university-marine-field-station-open-house-event/

Rutgers University
Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences - DMCS
Rutgers Alumni Association
Rutgers Cooperative Extension

Get "Reel Into Fishing" with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension! 🎣Designed for youth in grades 5–10, this hands-on progra...
08/13/2026

Get "Reel Into Fishing" with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension! 🎣
Designed for youth in grades 5–10, this hands-on program introduces participants to fishing, conservation, marine science, and careers in the fishing and boating industries.

There are a few spots remaining for the Burlington (August 18–20) and Atlantic County (August 25–27) locations, so be sure to register today!

From casting a line to exploring the science behind our waterways, Reel Into Fishing gives the next generation an opportunity to learn, explore, and get hooked on fishing!

Learn more and register: https://igfa.org/reel-into-fishing/

Did you catch today’s solar eclipse?!We spotted it at 1:54 PM, when about 7–10% of the eclipsed sun was visible in New J...
08/12/2026

Did you catch today’s solar eclipse?!

We spotted it at 1:54 PM, when about 7–10% of the eclipsed sun was visible in New Jersey! Even a partial eclipse is pretty cool to see—and yes, we were watching with proper solar safety glasses, of course! 😎🔭

Did you spot the eclipse today? Tell us where you were watching from in the comments below!

And in case you missed it, you can catch the Perseid meteor shower, which is peaking tonight!

Last week's routine long-term fish monitoring sampling was joined by an unexpected guest! This tiny tropical traveler is...
08/06/2026

Last week's routine long-term fish monitoring sampling was joined by an unexpected guest! This tiny tropical traveler is the Bandtail puffer (Sphoeroides spengleri)—a species we've only documented 6 times in the 34 years of twice-weekly sampling (5 of those sightings were all together back in 2015)!

How did this juvenile make it all the way to New Jersey? This is an example of fatal tropical expatriation - fish spawned by adults to the south, including Florida, the Caribbean, and Sargasso Sea, are delivered to New Jersey as drifters in offshoots of the Gulf Stream. Many such species are reef fish will settle here, but unlike their powerful swimming open water cousins, they cannot make it back to warmer waters, and unfortunately will likely not survive once temperatures drop in the winter.

Long-term monitoring like this helps us spot these rare visitors and better understand how marine species respond to changing ocean conditions over time—patterns that would be impossible to detect in short-term studies.

Fun fact: Like other puffers, the Bandtail puffer can inflate itself with water to make it much harder for predators to swallow. It's also highly toxic if eaten—a useful defense for a fish that, as our researchers put it, "looks like a tasty crouton and swims only a little better than one."

Save the Date for the 2026 JC NERR & Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) Open House Event! On Saturday, Sept...
07/31/2026

Save the Date for the 2026 JC NERR & Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) Open House Event!

On Saturday, September 12th, we will be hosting our most popular event of the year, with some new twists! You answered our survey; we listened! This year, the RUMFS location theme is “The Scientific Method in Action at RUMFS” and will feature the same ticketed entry but will now feature sought-after seminar-style talks about the history of the field station, long-term research surveys, and some time at our touch tank!

All interactive booths, activities, and kids crafts will be hosted at the JC NERR Coastal Center. We’ll also be offering guided trail walks & opening our beloved Life on the Edge Exhibit (no tickets required for those locations!).

We also wanted to tease a new addition to the JC NERR location for this year: a life-sized, immersive crab pot game for all ages!

Stay tuned for the RUMFS ticket link, coming soon!

(If you’d like to be among the first to learn more and gain access to the ticket link, be sure to subscribe to our email list: https://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001SPMbSMElFv7At6jNJoNfOwmzzRAEa-oQxLTlBpcyvpnuWAUssUdj1eGfUzZ4ydGzGt86Q4phTG0oEJmLWSkKzW7vtd8V-rAa )

Rutgers University
Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences - DMCS
Rutgers Alumni Association
Rutgers Cooperative Extension

Today was a great day to be out on the water! We had a full boat for our Estuary Exploration Tour, and even had a specia...
07/29/2026

Today was a great day to be out on the water! We had a full boat for our Estuary Exploration Tour, and even had a special visit from Josh Gant, Naturalist with Ocean County Parks & Recreation! Josh started our tour with some expert birding (Did you know that all egrets are herons, but not all herons are egrets??)

Amy Plantarich, Kaitlin Gannon, and Toni Rose Tablante from the JC NERR chatted all things estuarine, including the history of the Reserve, our research projects (eeling, flounder, and plankton, oh my!), and habitat restoration. We also tested attendees knowledge with a marsh metaphors activity and chatted all about a crowd favorite, horseshoe crabs!

Keep an eye out soon for when the registration link for our next boat tour on August 26th goes live!

Special thanks to The Tuckerton Seaport for co-hosting these events with us, and to Captain Dick for keeping us all safe on the boat today!

Join us for our first Estuary Exploration Boat Tour of the season, coming up this Wednesday, July 29th, from 9am-12pm!Le...
07/27/2026

Join us for our first Estuary Exploration Boat Tour of the season, coming up this Wednesday, July 29th, from 9am-12pm!

Learn about the bay while on the water! We (in partnership with The Tuckerton Seaport) will co-host this boat tour of the Great Bay-Mullica River estuary while onboard the Seaport's 30-foot pontoon boat. We will take in the sites and sounds of the bay through nature viewing, conduct some hands-on activities, discuss Tuckerton's history and various JC NERR and Rutgers University research efforts.

Spots are limited! Register today: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35325/production/1284175?performanceId=11845634

We're getting NERRdy at the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference this week! Our Communications & Outr...
07/14/2026

We're getting NERRdy at the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) Conference this week! Our Communications & Outreach Coordinator joined educators from Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve-MD, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve - VA, Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve (DNERR), Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to grow our skills and celebrate educating those of all ages about our beloved estuaries.

Like Jacques Cousteau said "We only protect what we love, we only love what we understand, and we only understand what we are taught."

(PS: Did you know today is International Shark & Ray Awareness Day?! Take a moment today to celebrate our fin-tastic friends! 🦈)

That’s a wrap on our 2026 Art X Science Workshop Series!A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our final worksho...
07/14/2026

That’s a wrap on our 2026 Art X Science Workshop Series!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our final workshop, Pinelands Primer X Basket Weaving! 🌲🧺 We loved spending the day exploring the history, culture, and ecology of the incredible New Jersey Pinelands with Ben Ackerman (Chief Park Naturalist, Jake’s Branch County Park), then stepping back in time with Mary May as we learned the rich tradition of basket weaving in New Jersey and crafted our own berry baskets inspired by New Jersey’s history.
(And special thanks to Precious, the Northern pine snake, for making a VIP star appearance!)

Be sure to follow Mary May at marymay-baskets.com to learn more about her work and see what workshops she has coming up next!

Thank you to everyone who attended, asked questions, shared stories, and created alongside us this season. Your curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm made this series so special.

We can’t wait to dream up more opportunities to connect art, science, and our coastal communities. Until next time! 💚🌿

Address

130 Great Bay Boulevard
Tuckerton, NJ
08087

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