Project Purpose: Project partners and volunteers will install and monitor a hybrid breakwater at the SW point of Clam
Cove Reserve to stabilize and protect marsh viability and stabilize the rapidly eroding shoreline.
 

Brief Description: Long Beach Township (LBT) and project partners Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI)
and Stockton Coastal Research Center (CRC) will construct a hybrid breakwater in the Clam Cove Reserve, located in the
Holgate section of Long Beach. The project is focused on the most vulnerable piece of Clam Cove shoreline and will use
a combination of materials and nature-based techniques such as oyster/clam shell, shell bags, and oyster castles to provide
protection from wave, wake and wind energy. Oyster castles have been found to be an effective tool in shoreline
protection while also increasing habitat for a variety of fish, invertebrates, and epi-faunal organisms. Volunteers will work
with project partners to move and install shell, shell bags, and oyster castles at the project site. The approximate size of
the installation is 100 ft x 20 ft, consisting of an oyster castle perimeter (9 ft x 9 ft x 4.67 ft) and a shell bag interior (99 ft
x 9 ft x 4.67 ft). To understand the changes that may result from installation of the breakwater, baseline monitoring will be
performed to measure bank erosion rate and elevation, wave energy, wind, and wave direction and vegetation and bottom
type will be assessed. The breakwater and surrounding area will be monitored in Spring/Summer 2025 for structural
integrity, sediment accretion on the landward side of the project, oyster recruitment, and species diversity.​​
 

Resource Values/Project Outputs:
The breakwater will protect the marsh habitat behind it, which will help to restore ecosystem functions and enrich
community resilience, as well as provide an outdoor laboratory for local environmental educators and scientists.
Education and research programming will be conducted at the adjacent LBT Field Station starting Summer 2025 and will
include kayak tours and weekly hands-on awareness programs. The project will provide experiential learning
opportunities for volunteers and project partners, including LBT staff, local volunteers and contractors. Volunteers will
work alongside researchers and be trained as citizen scientists, learning about restoration techniques, monitoring methods,
and data collection.

Cost/Budget: $135,400 which includes $110,400 in in-kind matching contributions.

Schedule: Winter 2025: project design, permitting, plan shell bagging events; March - April 2025: baseline monitoring,
project planning, purchasing; late-Summer 2025: Project Kick Off Event, install breakwater, volunteer training sessions,
outreach and education; Fall 2025 - Summer 2026: project monitoring, outreach, education
 

Permit Status: NJDEP GP 24 – received; USACE NW 54 – submitted and in review; NJDEP Tidelands – pending;
NJDEP annual Scientific Collecting Permits (if necessary) – will apply in early spring 2025
 

List of Partners: NJR = $75,000: installation and monitoring of the breakwater, supplies, shell bagging material, ReClam
the Bay support, signage, waders, gloves; In-kind services of $18,000 contributed by LBT and LBT Field Station for
municipal engineer costs, volunteer training, grant management, programming, facility space, implementation and
monitoring, shell and $17,400 from NFWF NCRF. Ocean County is co-owner of the project site.
 

What is requested from the CWRP/Contribution: $25,000 total for the purchase of 2,200 oyster castles for the
construction of the Clam Cove Hybrid Breakwater.
 

Point of Contact: Angela Andersen, Field Station Manager and Sustainability Coordinator, 609-276-7040,
andersen@longbeachtownship.com