Columns
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•May 15, 2024
Fish Kill Stinks Up Nuclear Plan
As the summer of 1973 began, Ocean County, N.J. was on the verge of becoming one of the nation’s focal points for the production of electricity using nuclear power. At the time, four floating…
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•May 15, 2024
Dave Jones Releases Worship Record With Star-Studded Team
Anyone who enjoys live music on and around Long Beach Island has likely heard Dave Jones perform. A skilled luthier, he is the go-to guy most local players have entrusted with their beloved…
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•May 9, 2024
Jersey Shore Musicians Podcast Discusses Self-Advocacy Among Artists
Although the sun has been holding out on us, summer is drawing near, meaning entertainment will soon double and so will this very news magazine as we usher in Section Two, the arts and entertainment…
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•May 8, 2024
The Most Bitten Contestant Is the New World Champion – A New Player Awaits in the Wind Power Wings
After offering a fabulous new tournament idea, I’ll again submerge this column in offshore wind matters since very few things will impact the future of recreational and commercial fishing like the…
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•May 8, 2024
Dead Fish, Shipworms Spell Trouble
One of the interesting benefits of studying history is it can trigger lively “what if” debates, such as what if Lincoln hadn’t gone to Ford’s Theatre or Truman had not ordered the A-bomb to be…
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•May 1, 2024
Looking to Bag One of Them-There Soy Turkeys; Atlantic Shores North Takes a Lighthouse View
CHURCHLY GOOFING: I ran into the wife of arguably the most dedicated hunter I have ever known. We’ll call her Anna and him Allen, mainly to cover the identity of this wonderful lady, who I was about…
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•May 1, 2024
Power Study Has a Rough Start
When contracts were signed in September 1972 to locate the nation’s first floating nuclear power station off the southern tip of Long Beach Island, some critics argued that more studies were needed…
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•April 30, 2024
How Ridiculous Short-Term Rental Sites Have Become; Ocean Temp Hits 50
Does anyone remember when Airbnb and VRBO were actually worthwhile?
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•April 28, 2024
Troubling Bufflehead Duck Die-Off Goes Viral; Recipe Calls for ‘60 Freshly Emerged Cicada’
Why won’t this chill just take a chill pill? It has been quite the raw spring, irksomely so to us non-snowbirds.
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•April 24, 2024
Ocean County Takes a Stand
In September 1972, an event took place on a yacht off the southern end of Long Beach Island that would affect the entire nation.
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•April 22, 2024
All This Rain But Talking a Summer Drought; Volcano Might Be Taking Aim at My Spouting Herbs
Upon us are the days of municipal hydrant flushings and the homefront switching of glass panes for airy screens, prior to closing windows for suddenly foreboding air condition times.
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•April 18, 2024
April Can Always Find New Ways to Disappoint But We Had a Diamond in the Rough
I’m writing this column on my phone, from inside my Volkswagen. I am currently lost in Beach Haven West. Due to whatever is being done to eastbound Rt. 72, I was forced to detour into Beach Haven…
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•April 17, 2024
First Permit Granted for Nuclear Reactors
In April 1972 the New Jersey Assembly had passed a resolution asking the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to delay issuing permits to build two floating nuclear reactors off Holgate and…
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•April 11, 2024
Surviving the Great Rumble, April 2024; Box Turtles in Socks Lead to Poacher Bust
WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’: First, some thoughts on our more-interesting-than-damaging N.J. earthquake. It was a decent 4.8 temblor that took place beneath Tewksbury – which isn’t all that far from…
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•April 10, 2024
Taking Notes From Beyoncé’s Exposition on Americana
By this point, everyone should have heard Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter record, or otherwise decided they aren’t interested in hearing it (one suspects, perhaps, because they are afraid they might enjoy…
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•April 10, 2024
Ocean-Based Nuclear Project Moves Ahead
By the spring of 1972 there had been several news articles announcing plans to build a series of floating nuclear reactors just off the coast of New Jersey. As the project proceeded, there was a need…
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•April 3, 2024
Early Indications for Wild Hurricane Season Give You Time to Make Tinfoil Hat
OK, it’s the first week of April. So let’s see … the conspiracy theorists have about four months to start thinking of crazy stuff to account for whatever happens this year at the peak of hurricane…
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•April 3, 2024
Nation’s First Wind Farm Is Awash With Research; Bird Nests Are Untouchable … Though Crushable
Once it opened in December 2016, the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm has become the most studied, researched and generally looked upon wind power array anywhere in the world. It is also the most…
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•April 3, 2024
Nuclear Plants Off Long Beach Island?
As you stand on any Long Beach Island beach watching the sunrise, your view has changed little since the founding of the country. If you turn around, however, nothing is the same.
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•March 29, 2024
Die-Off of Buffleheads Is a Bona Fide Baffler; Filleting Career Began With Snapper Bluefish
We have an unfolding dead duck situation taking place on LBI. Such ugly happenings present as a serious whodunit, in this case a whatdunit.
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•March 27, 2024
Debate Over Power Nothing New
Over the past several years I have watched with interest the ongoing debate in The SandPaper editorial section over offshore windmills. Something in the debate triggered a vague memory; the story…
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•March 24, 2024
Solid Surf Roundup and March Radness; Put Away Your Snow Shovel But Don’t Plant Lettuce
Is the written word ineffectual these days? As a columnist in a weekly beach rag, do my accounts of the surf, editorializing of atmospheric events, small-town social commentary and general saltwater…
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•March 21, 2024
Whale of a Use for AI: Commercial Fishermen Might Have No Choice
I’ve frequently been referencing artificial intelligence, knowing full well it is quickly altering the world for good … or possibly for bad.
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•March 18, 2024
Technical Side of Tadpole Bubbles Revealed in Filled Vernal Ponds; Scallops Dangerously Jumpy Amid Turbine Build
How about that weekend wind-whacking!? It blew me away, almost literally.
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•March 13, 2024
‘Norse Variant’ Lost at Sea
During March 1973, the Jersey Shore had suffered a near miss, as a spring nor’easter traveled north parallel to the East Coast but remained just offshore. What few knew at the time was that two…
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•March 10, 2024
One Hundred Days ’Til Whenever, Countdown to Forever
I don’t remember exactly who said it recently – I’m sure there were several folks who mentioned, both out loud and on social media – “100 days until Memorial Day.”
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•March 7, 2024
Sweet Cacophony of Spring Peepers; Explaining Causeway Project Project’s Slow-Go; Pacific Whales Amid ‘Marine Heatwave’
It was still officially February when this year’s emergence of wonderfully rambunctious spring peeper frogs began their annual cascade of calls. I took in a number of locales where peepers were…
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•March 6, 2024
Behind the Scenes, In Studio, Part Three: Ty Mares Entrusts ‘Still Breathing’ to Zach Jones
As an imminently approaching spring teases us with longer, warmer days, we are also buoyed through the rainy season with the promise of music festivals and big summer releases. For many small…
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•February 28, 2024
Roadways Remain Wet Behind the Ears As Frequent Flooding Goes Nowhere Fast; The Universe’s Whitest White and Blackest Black
With March moving in, we enter the most precipitated upon month of the year for LBI, based on “Brant Beach” data stats from the National Centers for Environmental Information. Oddly, the second most…
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•February 28, 2024
Lighthouse or Light Ship? Both
As March 1924 began, Barnegat Lighthouse was about to play host to a delegation that contained the one man who was supposed to decide its fate.
