First Monthly Meeting

The first monthly meeting of ReClam the Bay took place on Jan. 18, at the Cooperative Extension building in Toms River. The education committee meeting preceded the regular meeting and the committee was pleased to see 12 volunteers who expressed interest in helping with the education mission.

Another 20 people attended the regular meeting, Rick gave an overview of our 2010 growing season. He went over the various growth data charts from some selected upwellers and compared the growth rates of various hatcheries and upwellers. He stated that we are improving our data collection and that we will have a meeting in the spring before this growing season begins to set up uniform procedures for all upwellers. If you want to see all we accomplished in 2010 see the Annual Report

Wes presented a report on the various educational outreach activities that are ongoing, including

the speakers presentations to adults as well as the “shellfish in the classroom” and “Junior Shellfish Gardeners” programs.

Cara reported on the meetings she has attended with the Barnegat Bay Partnership and how recent events have been very encouraging. The signing of several bills, including the strict use of lawn fertilizer, the soil restoration bill and the storm basin repair bill are certainly steps in the right direction concerning the future health of the bay. She also gave a brief overview of the governor's comprehensive ten point plan of action.

Donna Managed to get Mike DeSider from Ritchie & Page Distributor Company to donate a great looking single person RED kayak and brought it to the meeting. We plan to bring it to fairs and festivals and sell raffle tickets this year.

GIANT CLAM ADDED TO TRAIL

On Sunday, October 10 the newest giant clam was added to our Clam Trail. The coming out party was graciously hosted by the proud mama clam Tricia Wujciak of Bum Roger Clam House in South Seaside Park. Volunteers who were lucky enough to be in attendance were treated to a variety of shellfish goodies, cookies and a large sheet cake. Our thanks go out to Trich and her family for their very generous support.

BAY HEAD STUDENTS BEACH DAY

On Friday September 24, the Bay Head Elementary School held their annual Beach Day. After the lunch hour the entire student body marched to the Mount Street Beach where several environmental lessons and activities were shown to the students. This year RCTB volunteers Wes Dazell. and Frank Vives were invited to come to the beach and present our lessons on shellfish growing and environmental stewardship. The activities were very well organized and the children were divided into small groups by grade. They were interested in seeing the shellfish and in learning about our program. Parents and teachers were impressed by the presentation and asked if we could expand the program in the school.

RCTB Volunteers Participate in Festivals

On Saturday September 11th the Borough of Lavalette held its annual Heritage Day Festival. Led by borough resident Donna Franzoso, volunteers from RCTB were in attendance at our display table meeting the public and explaining our mission. The weather was ideal and the crowds were large and inquiring. The following members, Mary Townsend, Bruce Beveridge. Wes Dazell, Marty Sedlacko, Lynette Lurig, Frank Vives, and of course Donna were kept busy answering questions and providing information.

On Sunday the Friends of Island Beach Sate Part held their annual Beach Plum Festival. Once again members of RCTB set up our information table. The weather in the morning was rather nasty with threatening dark clouds and a period of heavy rain. Although it cleared up later in the morning the crowd was much smaller than in previous years. The following volunteers braved the poor conditions and remained on site until closing, Jim Merritt, Bruce Beveridge, Wes Dazell, Marty Sedlacko, and Frank Vives. Our thanks goes out to all our volunteers and we invite all members to try to come out to one of the many Fairs and Festivals and to meet and greet the public on behalf of RCTB.

Verizon Filmmaker Visit Upweller

Thanks to the efforts of Charlie Brandt our media and PR go to guy, ReClam the Bay will be the topic of a new video documentary to be seen on Verizon’s Fios channel one. On Monday August 16, filmmaker Bill Schlosser paid a visit to the upweller at Island Beach State Park to shoot scenes of RCTB volunteers as they worked on their weekly maintenance duties. Bill asked questions of the various volunteers and filmed their responses and explanations of our mission. This is sure to be another example of our success in reaching out to the people of New Jersey and making them aware of what we are doing and what they can do to help save Barnegat Bay.

Asbury Park Press Special Series on Bay

Press writers Todd Bates and Kirk Moore and staff have recently completed an outstanding series of articles on the plight of Barnegat Bay. Photos, videos and the entire series can be viewed at the Press web site.

WHYY Features ReClam the Bay

Thanks to Charlie Brandt, our media and PR guy, WWYY the greater Philadelphia leading public media provider serving southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware has highlighted ReClam the Bay in its weekly series of audio and web portraits called “Coming of Age.” Several weeks ago crew members from the station visited the Barnegat Light upweller site and recorded and photographed our members during their weekly maintenance program. To see a video of this go to the WHYY web page:

www.whyy.org/widerhorizons/comingofage.html