SALT MARSH GRASSES GROW IN ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS

For me, one of the most fascinating natural features of living in the Bayshore region of Monmouth County is that you never know what you will see or find. With all the roads, houses, and strip malls that overcrowd towns from South Amboy to the Highlands you would think that life in this mostly urban region would be short of natural surprises. Yet, you would be wrong.

Take for example the Charlie Hesse Pier in the Atlantic Highlands Harbor, part of Sandy Hook Bay. During the late 1800s to early-1900s, the pier was an important rail yard. Many people depended on this pier to provide a rail connection between New York City to resort towns along the coastline of Monmouth County. In the mid-1900s, however, a fire caused extensive damage to the pier.

Today, numerous people from all over New Jersey and New York gather on what remains of the pier to go fishing for bluefish, herring, bass, or flounder. Indeed, so popular is this site for fishing that people often call it the “old” fishing pier.

Unfortunately, decades of mismanagement by the property owner and abuse by visitors and teenagers have created (in my opinion) a disgusting, offensive, and shameful area. Seven days a week and throughout the year all sorts of trash and litter can widely be seen, such as beer bottles, paper bags, plastic bottles, styrofoam boxes, scraps of food, and unused fishing line. In fact, just recently I observed someone illegally dumping a full bag of trash at the end of the pier with the top open and debris blowing in the wind into the water.

If the amount of garbage is not enough to make you weep, then there is also plenty of underage drinking that occurs on weekends. The pier is certainly a noticeable blemish in an otherwise beautiful harbor.

Yet, even with this disrespect by humans for their environment, there exists nature. An approximately 20-foot lengthwise plot of hearty salt marsh grass is growing on the southwestern side of the pier. While the sight of saltmarsh grass might not seem eventful to you, it is to me. The most conspicuous tidal wetland plant in the Bayshore region is the invasive and monotonous looking Phragmities. This reed is a tall plant that grows in a dense monoculture of a few square yards to more than an acre. Therefore, it is refreshing to observe a crisp community of assorted native grasses, such as Spartina, growing in an otherwise neglected area of Atlantic Highlands.

photo ALLAN DEAN Salt Marsh Grass grows near Hesse Pier in Atlantic Highlands

The currents in the bay depositing sediments along the pier and seeds from nearby Spartina meadows most likely brought about the presence of the salt marsh grasses. The sand and rocks near the pier created a low marsh ecosystem and ideal habitat for tidal plants to grow.

Typically, seagrass meadows play an important role in an estuarine food web. They provide good homes for a variety of worms, isopods, snails, mollusks, and shrimps, which in turn are eaten by larger species including crabs, mummichogs, silverside fish, and numerous juvenile fish species. Subsequently, larger species, as well as many of the same types of fish that are being caught near the pier, eat these species. It is possible that one reason for the good fishing on Hess Pier is due to the presence of this modest seagrass meadow.

Saltwater vegetation is substantial to the health of our bay. Beds of seagrass form important nursery areas for many invertebrates and fishes. They also provide food to wintering waterfowl, such as brants. In addition, as the plants die and decompose, their remains are washed up on shore and are eaten by detritivores, such as snails, which help to continue the natural food web system in Sandy Hook Bay.

Thus, on your next trip to Atlantic Highlands you might want to stopover to observe the natural saltmarsh meadow system near Hesse Pier. Our modest meadow is a retreat for a diversity of fish and invertebrates, and unexpected good fortune for humans to delight in.