The next in a series of environmental talks at Brookdale will present Debbie Mans, Executive Director of the NY/NJ Baykeeper in Keyport, who will report on the health of New Jersey and New York bays, especially Raritan Bay, the evening of Monday, June 25, in the Warner Student Life Center on Brookdale’s Lincroft campus.

The program is free and open to all, and will begin at 6 PM with a cash buffet.  Also in attendance will be members of the N.J. Friends of Clearwater and the Jersey Shore (Monmouth) Group of the Sierra Club.  

Ms. Mans will also discuss the ups and downs of her organization’s disputes with the NJDEP over the Baykeeper’s attempt to determine if ecologically important oysters can be repopulated in Raritan Bay. (The Bay was once an extremely rich and productive marine habitat, until land-based pollutants and habitat destruction in the latter half of the 20th Century contaminated its waters and harmed or killed off many marine species. State and federal pollution controls have improved the bay’s water quality, but the state recommends not eating fish caught in Raritan Bay and prohibits harvesting of all shellfish.)

The Baykeeper organization was formed in 1989 to work with state officials and citizens’ groups to end pollution in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary watershed, improve public access, conserve and restore public lands, restore aquatic habitats, discourage inappropriate development, and carry out public education. Its programs aren’t limited to the shorelines but extend inland throughout the Hudson-Raritan watershed, including a recent purchase of several wooded areas of wetlands along the Third River in Bloomfield.

A question and answer session with Ms. Mans will follow her presentation. For additional information, contact Robert Macaluso at rmacaluso@brookdalecc.edu