Port Republic, N.J. - Christine Thompson, associate professor of Marine Science, and her students pulled a seine net along rows of oyster cages while the farmers on the lease tended to their oysters.

Kristin Adams ‘17, a conservation specialist for the Ocean County Soil Conservation District, connected the commercial oyster farmers with the marine science team through a grant-funded project that pays farmers to foster baby oysters that will later be planted on Stockton University’s oyster reef restoration sites in Barnegat Bay.

Oysters are the bay’s natural filters and provide habitat to juvenile fish and crabs that seek shelter in the reef structure.

The R/V Rudy Arndt left the dock just after sunrise to work with the tides.

Adams joined Thompson and her students to help survey fish and crab species living on and outside oyster lease sites with fish traps and a seine net and gathered water quality samples and data.

The team wore full wetsuits and neoprene boots to escape the greenheads and safely navigate the oyster cages.

Students took turns pulling the seine, setting and retrieving fish traps and processing the catches.

Pipefish, anchovies, silversides, perch, black sea bass, tiny crabs, an eel and shrimp were some of the species that were caught. All animals were released immediately after being measured and weighed.

Read more about the project in the story Shellfish Farmers Foster Oysters for Conservation. 

View the photo story below highlighting a day in the field.

Photos and story by Susan Allen 

Paige Baney, a 2023 Marine Science graduate and Coastal Zone Management master's student from Brick, passes a seine net overboard for fellow students to survey marine life living along a commecial oyster lease in Barnegat Bay. 

 

Jarod Bowen, a junior Marine Science major from Lacey Township, and Kristin Adams '17 pull a seine net as Dave Ambrose, a Marine Science graduate who works as a Field Research Technician at Stockton's Marine Field Station, records the distance the seine net travels with a measuring tape. 

 

 

Paige Baney and Christine Thompson sort through the seine net aboard the R/V Rudy Arndt. 

 

Christine Thompson measures and weighs a silver perch and then releases it back into the bay. 

 

The team also sets fish traps at the oyster lease sites and corresponding control sites. 

 

An American eel was caught in one of the fish traps. 

 

Christian Florek, a senior Marine Biology major from Bayville, releases the eel. 

 

A pipefish was caught in a seine net. 

 

Jarod Bowen collects water quality data with a YSI instrument. 

 

An Atlantic blue crab throws its pinchers up as a ruler approaches for measurement. 

 

Dave Ambrose pilots the R/V Rudy Arndt to each oyster lease and control site and makes sure the research trip runs smoothly. 

View more photos on Flickr.