Jacques Cousteau Reserve, New Jersey
Location: The reserve is located eight miles southeast of exit 58 of the Garden State Parkway, in Tuckerton, N.J.
Total Acreage: 114,665
Designation: 1998
Lead State Agency:
Rutgers University, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences.
Mailing Address:
Jacques Cousteau Coastal Education Center
130 Great Bay Boulevard
Tuckerton, NJ 08087
Phone: 609-812-0649
Fax: 609-294-8597
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/forsythe/
The Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, where more than 43,000 acres of southern New Jersey coastal habitats are actively protected and managed for migratory birds. Forsythe is one of more than 500 refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is a network of lands and waters managed specifically for the protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat and represents the most comprehensive wildlife resource management program in the world. Units of the system stretch across the United States from northern Alaska to the Florida Keys, and include small islands in the Caribbean and South Pacific. The character of the Refuges is as diverse as the nation itself. Check out the electronic copy of our general brochure (June 2007) with new maps and other updated information.
The headquarters office is located at
Great Creek Road
Oceanville, NJ 08231
Phone: (609) 652-1665
Fax: (609) 652-1474
E-mail: forsythe@fws.gov
Mailing Address
Box 72, Great Creek Road
Oceanville, NJ 08231
Volunteer Office (Sandy Perchetti, Volunteer Coordinator)
Lily Lake Road
Oceanville, NJ 08231
Phone: (609) 748-1535
Fax: (609)748-2731
The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, at the Mullica River and the Great Bay, is the only reserve in the system to be named after an individual. It’s also the only reserve in the system to expand its boundaries seaward to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Jacques Cousteau Reserve encompasses over 114,000 acres in southeastern New Jersey, including a great variety of terrestrial, wetland and aquatic habitats within the Mullica River-Great Bay ecosystem.
The reserve is a concentrated patchwork of federal and state lands managed in partnership through a variety of agencies.
With little more than 1 percent of the reserve subjected to human development, this area is regarded as one of the least disturbed estuaries in the densely populated urban corridor of the Northeastern United States. Occurring within the unique New Jersey Pinelands forest ecosystem, on the coastal plain and the barrier islands of the coastal margin, the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary is of special ecological value.
The high environmental quality of the habitats within the Cousteau Reserve are consistent with the objective of the national reserve system to preserve areas that retain a healthy ecosystem and provide the opportunity to serve the needs of long-term research and monitoring programs.
NJ proposed MPA's
197 Lighthouse Road
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