Dear Editor, As the third anniversary of Super Storm Sandy approaches, New Jersey leaders continue to spend money on defending our coast from future storm damage. We’ve seen houses elevated, home buyouts, and beach replenishments. Shellfish comes to mind when I think of the shore. No, not ones we eat (although nothing beats boardwalk rawbars.) I’m thinking of cheap natural remedies that would protect our coastal towns. After Sandy, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended strengthening shellfish reefs to protect shorelines from future damage. Mussel and oyster reefs have been proven to stabilize shorelines and prevent erosion which in turn protects coasts from flood damage. Unfortunately, due to overfishing and pollution in the early 1900s, there is not a sustainable oyster population in NY-NJ Harbor waters. And yet in a state where we’re supposed to be “Stronger than the Storm,” since 2010, New Jersey hasn’t permitted shellfish restoration and research programs along our Bayshore coast where Sandy left incredible devastation in her wake. There is a bill in the New Jersey Senate scheduled to be voted on later this month that would allow shellfish research to return to our state, where they never should have been banned in the first place. What good are we doing if we’re not even allowed to research other resiliency possibilities?
Signed, XXXX