ASBURY PARK – New Jersey’s beaches may be in the best shape since Super Storm Sandy ravaged the coast in 2012, but a virtually invisible threat continues to kill unsuspecting and inexperienced swimmers.
Last summer, a record eight people across New Jersey drowned after being swept up in rip currents – the powerful water currents pulling away from the shorelines and out into the oceans – since the National Weather Service began tracking the related deaths in 1998. About 20 more fatalities last summer were also attributed to people swimming at beaches either after hours or when lifeguards weren’t present.
It’s a menacing trend one local Sandy Hook-based organization is looking to halt.
“It’s a shame,” said Claire Antonucci, executive director of New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium (NJSGC). “The water quality is great, the beaches are in great shape and then you have something like that happen, and it’s tough.”
Williams has also traveled the state, visiting classrooms and libraries to educate elementary aged beachgoers about the dangers associated with rip currents.
“It takes these beaches a while to get to equilibrium,” said Williams. “Some areas are faster and some take a longer time. Always be vigilant, even if it’s not a place that you’ve ever seen rip currents at.”
That weather event has since been titled the March 2018 “Four’easter,” said Jon K. Miller, Ph.D., a NJSGC processes specialist and research associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. The biggest of those storms was rated as the 27th biggest storm in the last 35 years, but the cumulative four storms ranked as the fifth-highest storm in that same time frame, Miller said.
“We were fortunate that the wave heights during these nor’easters were not terribly large,” added Miller. “It had to do with the nature of the storms coming more over the land than over the sea.”
Of the 221 beaches tested last year from mid-May through mid-September, 97 percent of the results came back within the acceptable threshold of 104 colonies of Enterococci bacteria per 100 milliliters. That’s the same bacteria found in fecal matter.
“I am proud to say and very happy to say once again, one more time, that the quality of our coastal waters is excellent,” said McCabe. “You can all feel safe going to the beach.”
Locally, beaches in Highlands – Miller Street and Robert D. Wilson Community Center – and Middletown – Ideal Beach – experienced a handful of shutdowns last year. At one point, Highlands officials voluntarily closed the beaches as they investigated, and found, sources of pollution.
“We don’t expect right now nor are aware of any situations of any infrastructure issues, but that’s why we do the testing every Monday,” Bruce Friedman, director of water monitoring and standards with the DEP, said of Highlands’ situation.
This article was first published in the May 31-June 7, 2018 print edition of The Two River Times.