Celebrate the work of the Rutgers University Marine Field Station and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve – and “explore the amazing marine science taking place in your backyard,” the university encourages – at an open house event on Saturday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will take place at both locations this year.
RUMFS, a field facility of Rutgers’ Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, is a working lab situated across from the Little Egg Inlet in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary.
The JCNERR, one of the two national estuarine reserves created to promote the responsible use and management of the nation’s estuaries, encompasses approximately 116,000 acres in southeastern New Jersey, including a great variety of terrestrial, wetland and aquatic habitats within the Mullica River-Great Bay ecosystem. The Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers manages the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Center, in Tuckerton, which serves as the hub for education and outreach programs associated with the reserve.
At the open house event, attendees can “meet Rutgers and JCNERR scientists and explore the exciting research in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary and beyond,” the university explains. Check out interactive booths, a critter touch tank, history and ecology talks, guided Grassle Marsh trail walks, kids activities and games and more.
Visitation of the booths at RUMFS will be available via pre-registered time slots to better accommodate the crowds and to improve the experience for visitors. Register at jcnerr.org. No tickets are required for the JCNERR; stop by anytime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. —J.K.-H.
Original article at The Sandpaper
Photo credit: Pat Johnson