Thank you for visiting Shore11.org.  We're glad you found us.  Shore11.org is for those who love the Jersey shore, but who don't want to see it loved to death.

Shore11 provides daily coastal information, including environmental news, real-time beach conditions, and regular blogs.  Shore11 also offers opportunities for online discussion, photo sharing, and meaningful political action.

We're proud to be working with amazing people like Margo Pellegrino, the mother of two young children who recently completed a "message in a bottle" trip in her outrigger canoe from NJ to DC to support Ocean protection legislation in congress.  Much of her story can be found on this site. 

Shore11.org is an online platform for ocean champions like Margo to share their stories, gather support and input from the community, and to drive positive change.

Shore11.org will officially launch on Monday, August 25th, but I  encourage you to log on and dive in now.  It just takes a couple of minutes to register for  the Shore11 community.  The success of this site depends on concerned Shore lovers like you getting involved. 

Please feel free to recommend additional content to webmaster@shore11.org or post directly to the forums section of the site.  

We're also looking for volunteers who want to help manage the site.  If you are interested, please contact webmaster@shore11.org. 

We hope that you will find the site as a useful tool for exploring, enjoying, and ultimately protecting the Jersey shore that we all love. 

On that note, below is an opinion editorial that ran in the Trenton Times this, calling on the State of New Jersey to appoint members to the recently created Coastal and Ocean Protection Council.   Establishing this new council is a tangible step the Corzine administration can take to demonstrate its commitment to protecting shore ecosystems. 

Protect Jersey Shore together

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

BY LEON E. PANETTA, PAUL G. GAFFNEY II AND LILLIAN BORRONE

Hundreds of thousands of sun-worshippers flock every summer to the Jersey coast to relax on the sand, jump in the waves and gaze out at the serene horizon from busy boardwalks. The annual beach season brings in more than $36 billion a year, making it a vital chunk of New Jersey's economy that de pends on healthy beaches, clean coastal waters and abundant fish and wildlife.

But our coastal and ocean systems and the services they provide -- from seafood to shoreline buffer ing -- are seriously threatened by pollution, destruction of marine habitat, overdevelopment and increased pressure on fish stocks. New Jersey is not immune to this trend. There were more than 130 days of beach closings and advisories due to pollution at the Jersey Shore in 2006, a 70 percent rise from 2005. Many of New Jersey's most important commercial and recreational saltwater fish and shellfish are depleted or are being overfished. As the state continues to approach "build-out," there are more and more roads, parking lots and other paved surfaces funneling pollutant-laden stormwater runoff into coastal waters. We must act now to protect and restore the Jersey Shore.

New Jersey has the opportunity to be a leader on ocean issues. Earlier this year, Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a bill establishing the Coastal and Ocean Protection Council. Designed to recommend new, coordinated ways of advanc ing protection of the state's marine resources, the council consists of agency heads and six members of the public with backgrounds in the commercial and recreational fishing industries, the academic community and environmental and public resources protection.

Gov. Corzine should move quickly to appoint the council's members and direct them to get to work as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the harder and more expensive it will be to fix our ocean problems. We need a coordinated approach to address the degradation of our coastal and ocean resources. Until we do this, we have little chance of protecting the overall health of these marine systems -- and of saving the ocean life, jobs and traditions of the Jersey Shore.

Leon E. Panetta is co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative (JOCI) and former chair of the Pew Oceans Commission. Paul G. Gaffney II is president of Monmouth University and a member of JOCI. Lillian Borrone is a member of JOCI and a former assistant executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

© 2008  The Times of Trenton

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