NCCOS scientists are monitoring changes in both the physical setting and biological communities on Mordecai Island to quantify the success of these ongoing restoration efforts. NCCOS researchers collecting nearshore sediments to support analysis of the impacts of Mordecai Island restoration activities on benthic organisms. In addition to sediment placement activities, local partners including the Mordecai Land Trust, have installed a number of wave attenuating devices along the island’s western shoreline in an attempt to protect against further erosive losses. The placement area was planted with native intertidal vegetation to help anchor the dredged sediments in place. Army Corps of Engineers used sediments dredged from the nearby New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway to fill in the breached area, essentially patching the two lobes of Mordecai Island back together with the goal of stabilizing the island against further losses. Continued erosion threatens the existence of Mordecai Island and the vital role that it plays in protection of the Beach Haven shoreline. Over the past century, persistent wave action has taken a toll on Mordecai Island, resulting in a loss of roughly 50 percent of its total area and leading to a breach that effectively separated the island into two lobes. In addition to providing habitat for a wide range of estuarine organisms and nesting shorebirds, the island serves as a wave-break, protecting the adjacent developed shoreline of Beach Haven from the erosive action of waves generated in Barnegat Bay. Mordecai is an undeveloped back barrier island that runs parallel to the Barnegat Bay shoreline of Beach Haven, New Jersey. The central mound with vegetation on top is the sediment placement area. Aerial image of Mordecai Island, New Jersey, in October 2018.
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