Urban Coast Institute Communications Director Karl Vilacoba provided an online tour of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal in a Nov. 14 edition of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean’s “How Tuesday” webinar series. The session is ideal both for newcomers and returning users seeking a refresher on the Portal’s maps, tools and features.

The Portal is a free and publicly accessible GIS mapping and information tool focused on ocean areas from New York through Virginia. It features over 6,000 interactive maps showing marine life distributions, offshore wind proposals, fishing grounds, wreck and reef locations, vessel traffic patterns, recreation hot spots and much more. Vilacoba serves as the project manager for the technical team developing the site.

For more information about the Portal, or if you’re interested in scheduling a training for your agency or class, contact Vilacoba at kvilacob@monmouth.edu.

Monmouth University is hiring two grant-funded (2023-25) positions for fisheries monitoring related to offshore wind development off the New Jersey coast. These positions will work as part of a growing team within the research labs of Professors Keith Dunton and Jason Adolf at Monmouth University (and collaborators at St. Anselm College, Stony Brook University, and New England Aquarium), working on acoustic telemetry monitoring and eDNA of various offshore wind development areas.

Interviews will begin immediately with a proposed start date ASAP. Scroll below for overviews of four open research positions at Monmouth University and click the links to learn more or apply for these jobs.

Marine Fisheries Acoustic Telemetry Senior Scientist – Full time 2-year grant funded.  Begins ASAP. Up to $70,000 per year depending on experience. PhD. preferred or an MS with relevant work experience.

https://jobs.monmouth.edu/postings/16861

The incumbent will coordinate and lead field research related to assessing marine fish communities using acoustic telemetry as a monitoring tool in offshore wind areas. The incumbent will primarily be responsible for deploying and maintaining a large offshore (up to 50 miles offshore) Innovasea acoustic telemetry array and surgically tagging multi-species, including elasmobranchs and finfish. Ability to operate small boats, independently lead fisheries sampling seasonally in offshore conditions, and work with partner commercial/recreational fishing industries, as well as other academic institutions is a must. The incumbent will also be expected to lead report and manuscript writing, data analysis, presentations at national meetings, and contribute to outreach and education.

Marine Fisheries Acoustic Telemetry Field Specialist – Full time 2-year grant funded.  Begins ASAP.  Up to $58,000 per year depending on experience.  MS preferred but extensive experience with acoustic telemetry can be substituted.

https://jobs.monmouth.edu/postings/16864

The incumbent will assist and, in some cases, lead field research related to assessing marine fish communities using acoustic telemetry as a monitoring tool in offshore wind areas. The Specialist will primarily be responsible for assisting in the deploying and maintaining a large offshore (up to 50 miles offshore) Innovasea acoustic telemetry array and surgically tagging multi-species, including elasmobranchs and finfish. The incumbent is expected to operate small boats, independently lead fisheries sampling seasonally in offshore conditions and work with partner commercial/recreational fishing industries, as well as other academic institutions is a must. The incumbent will be expected to assist in preparing reports and manuscripts, presentations at national meetings, and contribute to outreach and education.

The Urban Coast Institute (UCI) has awarded endowed scholarships to seven outstanding Monmouth University students for the 2023-24 school year. Three students received support for the first time beginning this semester: Christopher Meehan (Rita Mangan UCI Endowed Scholarship), Adriana Simancas and Brooke van de Sande (both Ann and Alfred L. Ferguson ’13HN UCI Endowed Scholarships). In addition, the UCI renewed an Ann and Alfred Ferguson ’13HN Scholarship for 2021 recipient Riya Ajmera, who is pursuing a double major in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry and communications with a concentration in journalism and public relations; MacDonald Family UCI Endowed Scholarships for Jasmine Barzin and Nicole Cappolina, both marine and environmental biology and policy (MEBP) students; and an Urban Coast Institute Endowed Scholarship for MEBP student Jessica Maguire. 

The UCI established endowed scholarships at Monmouth to support undergraduate students with a demonstrated interest in coastal, marine, and environmental studies. The scholarships are intended to encourage Monmouth students to become active, global citizens while fostering an understanding of the coastal and marine environment and communities, legal studies, public policy, and research methods.

The Ann and Alfred L. Ferguson ’13HN UCI Endowed Scholarship and MacDonald Family UCI Endowed Scholarship have been available since the 2020 and the Urban Coast Institute Endowed Scholarship was established by the UCI Advisory Committee in 2021. The Rita Mangan UCI Endowed Scholarship was made available for the first time this year.

Meet this year’s new endowed scholarship recipients below. See the UCI’s 2021 and 2022 annual reports for profiles of previous recipients.   

2023 New Recipients

Former Monmouth University Professor Randall Abate returned to campus Oct. 11 to deliver a presentation titled “Climate Washing, Corporate Accountability & Human Rights.” The event was sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Sociology and the Urban Coast Institute.

Abate, now the assistant dean for environmental law studies at the George Washington University Law School, discussed “climate washing” litigation that seeks to hold fossil fuel companies and other private sector entities accountable for misleading the public about their compliance with climate change mandates or goals. Climate washing tactics can threaten human rights to health, property, food and water, and life, especially in vulnerable communities, by postponing effective climate regulation and thereby amplifying the risks from climate change-related events such as severe storms, flooding, heat and droughts. The presentation proposed mechanisms to help ensure that companies’ characterizations of climate change compliance are transparent and truthful to limit human rights impacts from their efforts to comply with climate change mandates and goals.

Marie Mauro, a senior marine and environmental biology and policy student at Monmouth University, was among 18 U.S. students accepted to participate this summer in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Inclusive Fisheries Internship (IN FISH) program. IN FISH is a partnership between NOAA Fisheries and research partners in academia and non-governmental research institutions which aims to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

For the second consecutive year, IN FISH included a two-week course held at Monmouth. Students from Puerto Rico to California stayed in campus housing and made field visits to marine research facilities and ocean-related businesses in the region before fanning out across the country to complete eight-week internships at labs and offices administered by NOAA and its partners.

Mauro spent her summer studying climate change threats to the endangered Atlantic salmon at the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center at its Orono, Maine, Field Station and Maine Sea Grant. We caught up with Mauro to ask about her work and experience in the program.

Q: We’d love to hear about your summer. Can you tell us about your research and what it was like working at the Orono Field Station and Maine Sea Grant?

For my research project, I was analyzing water temperature data in the East Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine from a 20-year period to compare when thermal events occurred for Atlantic salmon. I analyzed water temperature data provided to me from the Maine Department of Natural Resources and did quality control and quality assurance. I imported the data to RStudio, where we identified various inconsistencies in the dataset and selected the years with data consistency to utilize. We used thermal thresholds from scientific literature to determine the duration and frequency of thermal events occurring at three sites in the East Branch. This research project greatly improved my R skills. I also learned how to work with inconsistent datasets.

I had the opportunity to participate in bi-monthly hydroacoustic surveys in the Penobscot Estuary. I extracted otoliths from riving herring. My job was to identify and count predators. I also got to see various Atlantic salmon sites, including the Milford Dam, where there is a fish pass and two Atlantic salmon hatcheries. Overall, my experience was very fulfilling, and I am grateful to have worked with fantastic mentors, John Kocik and Justin Stevens.

Q: IN FISH just completed its third year, including an initial year as a virtual program during the pandemic. What do you think makes this program so valuable?

The value of the IN FISH program can be attributed to several key factors. IN FISH gives undergraduate students the unique opportunity to undertake independent research with the guidance of mentors. This hands-on experience allows undergraduate students to develop value research skills and gain insights on the important work of NOAA Fisheries. This program facilitates networking opportunities for interns. Interns meet and interact with like-minded students that share similar academic interests. The cohort aspect of this program makes it so special in that regard.

Q: Your IN FISH cohort included students from 16 universities and 10 U.S. states and territories. What was their impression of Monmouth University and the Jersey Shore area?

The IN FISH cohort thought that the Jersey Shore was beautiful but were surprised that beaches were not free. They really enjoyed visiting Sandy Hook on our field trips and visiting Pier Village on our down time. They thought that campus was beautiful, especially the Great Hall. They thought that the campus was very walkable and there were lots of areas to study. Everyone got along well, and we all bonded during our time here. 

Q: What would you say to a student considering applying for an IN FISH internship?

IN FISH provides an opportunity to gain experience in fisheries science. If fisheries science interests you, then definitely apply to the program. You will have to be comfortable being away from home for 10 weeks in the summer and traveling to a new place somewhere in the country. This program could provide you with insight into what you could do in your future career. It is a rewarding experience and I highly recommend this program to anyone who has an interest in fisheries.

The Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) is seeking applicants for a community engagement and outreach specialist to lead activities associated with the UCI’s Coastal Resilience Planning Support for Environmental Justice Communities project.

The position will entail working with UCI staff and partners to lead climate vulnerability assessment, adaptation planning and implementation projects for EJ communities, infrastructure, and habitats. Based on a foundational understanding of climate change and its impacts on the built environment, society, and natural systems, and leveraging the UCI’s Coastal Community Resilience Initiative, the selected candidate will lead multi-disciplinary teams on collaborative problem-solving and stakeholder engagement to help EJ communities build a more resilient, just and sustainable future. Click here for additional details.

Peter J. Jacques, Ph.D., has joined Monmouth University as its Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute endowed chair in marine and environmental law and policy. Jacques will serve as a tenured professor in the Political Science and Sociology Department and an affiliated faculty member with the Urban Coast Institute (UCI), teaching undergraduate courses and conducting research on the politics of sustainability and global environmental change, including coastal, marine and climate policy and politics, and Indigenous thought.

Jacques (pronounced hack-iss) has over two decades of experience teaching political science connected to environmental issues, most recently at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He is a senior fellow with Earth Systems Governance and a past president of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Jacques is the author of seven books. His latest, The Environmental Policy Paradox, co-authored with the late Northern Arizona University Professor Zachary A. Smith, explores the social, economic, legal and political matters pertaining to environmental policy. His book Sustainability: The Basics (second edition), which offers an introduction to the core principles, ethical considerations and metrics of sustainability, is being translated into Turkish and Spanish.

He is currently writing a book that makes a case for incorporating Indigenous approaches toward sustainability into world political theory. Professor Jacques noted that Western societies can take lessons from Indigenous cultures that have endured in the same lands for thousands of years without destroying their environments. When Henry Hudson explored this region’s waters 400 years ago, he noted, the crew marveled at the reefs sustaining foot-long oysters – a sign that they were very old, even though they were intensely harvested by the Lenape Indians 

“They were leaning on the oysters hard but never destroyed them,” Jacques said. “We can learn from those kinds of practices and insights. I’d like to bring their traditional knowledge into international relations and politics, which have fundamentally ignored Indigenous peoples.”

Jacques is nearing completion of a 15-year research project on the core political reasoning of climate change denial. The work has entailed an in-depth analysis of English language books by deniers to determine what messages have been consistent and which arguments have changed over time.

He traces his interest in the topic to 2001, when as a doctoral student he read a prominent book making an “environmentalist” case against climate science. The more he read, he recalled, the clearer it became that the arguments were “shadows,” empty criticisms that lacked supporting science of their own. Jacques said the climate denial movement “doesn’t need facts when it can thrive off point-counterpoint debates of a political nature to delay action.”

“I tell my students that social science is at its best when it’s shining a light in the back room from The Godfather,” he said. “Malignant power thrives off darkness and secrecy. The more that it is discovered, the more it wilts.”

The endowed chair was established with support from a gift from Joan and Robert Rechnitz. Robert Rechnitz, Ph.D., was a professor of English at the University and Joan Rechnitz is a Monmouth graduate.

The Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) and the Global Ocean Forum (GOF) have entered a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to leverage their expertise and resources to advance global ocean policy and research initiatives that mutually align with their missions. 

Formed in 2001, the GOF is an international, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting good governance of the ocean, sustainable development for coastal and island peoples around the globe, and healthy marine ecosystems. The GOF brings together ocean leaders from all sectors to advance a global ocean agenda by promoting the implementation of international agreements related to the ocean, coasts, and small island developing states; promoting consensus-building on unresolved ocean issues, including ocean and climate issues, and improving the governance regime for ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction; and anticipating new ocean issues to facilitate forward-thinking policymaking and governance.

The UCI and GOF have collaborated on several initiatives, most recently co-organizing and participating  in side events at last summer’s United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon and December’s U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Eqypt. UCI Director Tony MacDonald has served as a member of the GOF’s Policy Advisory Board, and is currently a member of its Board of Directors.

“As a member of the U.S. National Committee for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, I am acutely aware that the challenges facing the oceans off the coast of New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic are similar to those facing other regional urban seas around the world, and in some cases it will take international commitments to reduce the impact of claims on oceans and to protect biodiversity and ecosystem health,” MacDonald said. “I hope that through our collaboration with the GOF, we can add our voice to the call to action to protect the ocean and bring some of the lessons learned from our work at the UCI,  as well as learn from what others are doing around the globe.”

The GOF MOA recognized Monmouth’s value as a partner, citing the UCI’s focus on integrated coastal and ocean management and regional ocean planning, as well as the University’s proximity to the U.N. headquarters in New York City and its active U.N. partnerships, including its United Nation Academic Impact membership, the UCI’s official observer status at UNFCCC conference, and the School of Social Work’s collaboration through the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) Social Work at the United Nations Initiative. 

“The Global Ocean Forum has benefited from the support of a host institution since its inception. Through a strengthened partnership with the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute, the GOF has found its new home,” Global Ocean Forum Executive Director Miriam Balgos said. “This collaboration will provide a strong, science-based foundation ensuring that the GOF remains grounded while responding to the needs of developing countries and stakeholders it continues to serve across various international fora.”

The agreement paves the way for future collaborations including:

• Opportunities for Monmouth students to serve as GOF interns and research assistants and participate in international fora. 
• The development of joint events and workshops that focus on understanding and managing ocean and coastal resources, climate issues and sustainability.
• Participation by GOF principals and experts in on-campus lectures, webinars, symposiums and other events organized by the UCI. 
• Engaging in collaborative research and the collection of data to inform international coastal and ocean management and other topics of mutual interest. 

The UCI and GOF will develop an annual work plan to guide their collaborative actions, activities and commitments. 

The Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Foundation has awarded the Urban Coast Institute (UCI) a $75,000 grant to support student and faculty research at Monmouth University from 2023-25. The funding will be used for research that forwards the mission of the UCI, student and class activities aboard Monmouth’s research vessels, and equipment purchases needed to support those endeavors.

Among other needs to be determined, the grant will allow the UCI to obtain a new sediment grab sampler for the University’s largest research vessel, the 49-foot Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe. The device is designed to scoop sand or other materials from the seabed and raise it to the surface, where it can be inspected for marine life, sediment composition or taken to the lab for testing.

The Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Foundation has been an instrumental supporter of the UCI over the years. Prior gifts have enabled the UCI to initiate programs in water quality testing along the Jersey Shore, increase understanding of water quality and flood warning systems, and to train students on the use of remotely operated underwater vehicles and other marine technologies. A 2018 gift from the Foundation helped restore the Heidi Lynn Sculthorpe when it was donated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and outfit it with enhanced technologies. The UCI is thankful for the Foundation’s continued support.

Meredith Comi, an expert in designing, implementing and directing aquaculture, oyster restoration and living shoreline projects, has joined the Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute (UCI) as its coastal resilience and restoration practitioner. Through an agreement with NY/NJ Baykeeper, Comi will continue to guide and build upon a portfolio of projects she previously led as director of the organization’s Coastal Restoration Program, which will transition to Monmouth’s management. She will also work with UCI Associate Director Thomas Herrington to support UCI coastal community resilience work. 

Comi’s work will be funded through a combination of external grants and fall under the umbrella of the UCI’s Coastal Community Resilience Initiative (CCRI). The CCRI is focused on providing community resilience and planning support for disadvantaged communities, promoting the development of natural features and green infrastructure to improve the resilience of communities and ecosystems, and working with other Monmouth partners and outside experts to advance elements of the New Jersey Coastal Resilience Plan.

Comi has over 25 years of experience with oyster restoration science and policy issues in New Jersey and has overseen the placement of millions of oysters in the Raritan and Sandy Hook bays, the Navesink River and the greater New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary. After starting her career in 1997 as a technician at the Rutgers University Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory, Comi became a staff ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Sandy Hook Laboratory, where she began her work on the design of reefs that could withstand the conditions of the Raritan Bay. Starting in 2006, she expanded and evolved NY/NJ Baykeeper’s early oyster restoration initiatives, successfully turning what was once an oyster gardening-focused program into a bi-state coastal restoration program.

In 2016, Comi and NY/NJ Baykeeper began a research partnership with Naval Weapons Station (NWS) Earle that allowed for reefs to be installed and monitored in waters that were off limits to the public. The undisturbed 10-acre area has served as an ideal laboratory, yielding lessons on scientific questions such as the best artificial reef shapes for young oysters to cling to, the impacts their filter-feeding have on water quality, and how effective reefs are for stunting wave energy. Comi noted that several students from Monmouth’s Marine and Environmental Biology and Policy Program joined NY/NJ Baykeeper upon graduation and were instrumental in this work.

“I’ve been proud to see how the hands-on experience that they received as field techs on these projects has led to interest and careers in marine science and how their passion for the subject has endured,” Comi said. “We are still in touch and some still work on the projects when they can and are still involved in the planning and monitoring of projects. That’s something I’m very excited to experience with Monmouth’s students.”

Comi oversees the monitoring of 600 oyster castles – cinder block-size pieces that join together like Legos to form underwater pyramids – that have proven to be viable habitats. Through federal grant funding, Comi and Monmouth will work with the Office of Naval Research and other partners to bolster NWS Earle’s resilience to climate change through a range of natural defenses including the oyster reef.

“Meredith brings a track record of creating and maintaining living shorelines for coastal resilience purposes in our region,” Herrington said. “She has a deep knowledge of every step needed to put an oyster reef in the water, from permitting to design, implementation and monitoring. She is very interested in the research questions surrounding oysters’ survival in urban environments and their potential resilience benefits, and we see these as excellent opportunities for collaboration with students and faculty.”

Comi also served as a biology, marine science and ecology teacher at Watchung Hills Regional High School in Warren, New Jersey, from 2003-06. She holds a degree in biology from Rowan University, is the co-chair of the New Jersey Coastal Resilience Collaborative’s Ecological Restoration and Science work group, and serves as a member of the Matawan Environmental Commission.