You’re living way in the past. That happened for a couple of years back in the mid to late 80’s during the tom kean administration. It turns out that the culprit was the government of New York City they were ineffective in the way of handling their refuse and storm drainage. Once the state of nj and the feds. found out the source, the problem was solved. NY is the real garbage state and it floated here to nj. The Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988, stopped most ocean dumping. I still prefer some of the beaches in florida: condos are half the price of New Jersey’s, no lifeguards, showers and a hose at each condo to wash off the sand, beach fires, drinking, kite flying all allowed and all for free, no beach fees, no tolls, no ez-pass, no traffic on the parkway.
Route 1 to Route 18 or 287 to Route 18 gets you around EZPass/Tolls.
We put showers and foot baths on our beach.
Uh, have you been to Miami Beach lately? Boca Raton? Even Delray Beach and Hollywood? Even with the recent correction, you will be shelling out a considerable number of sheckles, at least in South Florida, for a condo.

I love Lucy!