Free Republic

The seventh dead whale in a little over a month washed up on the Jersey Shore this week, sparking a debate about the impact of off-shore activities on marine life. The 20-foot-long humpback whale was found on the beach on Thursday afternoon in Brigantine, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) confirmed Friday. “Due to the incoming tide and low light last night, staff returned at daybreak this morning to take photos,” the update read. “Plans are underway for a necropsy to be performed on the animal.” Thursday’s discovery occurred just miles from where another dead whale was found in Atlantic...

TOMS RIVER, NJ – We’re from the government…and we’re here to help you…get vaccinated. If you haven’t been vaccinated and you live at the Jersey Shore, you can expect a state official to come knocking on your door this week. It’s part of a new COVID-19 vaccination drive announced by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Governor Phil Murphy this week said he has created a “COVID-19 Community Corps” and will knock on 134,000 doors and make 60,000 phone calls to shore residents in Jackson, Middletown, Howell, Atlantic City, Toms River, Brick, and Jackson. “We’re not stopping,” Murphy said. The COVID-19...

There are about 9 million of us living here, and we all can’t be delusional. Apart from those who live here primarily because of job or family, most New Jerseyans live here because they like it here! New York City is a quick PATH or train ride away — why live there? The Shore, the Pine Barrens, beautiful countryside, diners, beaches, the nation’s most diverse city, small towns, great scenic highways — does any state pack as much variety into one compact package as New Jersey? Nope. Here are the 50 best reasons to live in New Jersey, from someone...

The thousands of people who descended upon the Jersey Shore town for President Donald Trump's 'Keep America Great' rally at the Wildwoods Convention Center left behind a sea of trash in the parking lot — including their abandoned beach chairs and blankets — after the rally wrapped up.Rally-goers were allowed to bring chairs as they waited in line — some for up to 48 hours before the event — but they weren't allowed to bring them inside the venue.Factor in the blankets they used to stay warm, and all their drinks and food they were snacking on during the long wait...

My wife is not a big fan of President Trump. So when I got back from covering the Trump rally in Wildwood Tuesday, she asked me a question: “Were there any empty seats?” Were there any empty seats at Woodstock? I’ve never covered a Trump event that didn’t evoke images of that 1969 rock festival. As with Woodstock, the organizers have no need to advertise the event widely. The mere mention of it is enough to attract massive throngs of the faithful. Another similarity is the opportunity to hear a lot of great rock music from the 1960s. I arrived...

On a small island in Barnegat Bay, hundreds of birds that didn't exist in New Jersey 30 years ago bask in the summer sun. Suddenly, they all take flight, oddly elegant and vaguely prehistoric, with 6-foot wing spans and the most recognizable bills in the animal kingdom. They are brown pelicans, described by naturalist John James Audubon as one of America's "most interesting birds." They are also one of the Jersey shore's newest residents, joining other top-of -the-food-chain bird predators including the peregrine falcon, the osprey and the royal tern to form a new avian golden age on Barnegat Bay....

Complete Headline: BREAKING NEWS: Pipe Bomb explodes on route of charity 5k run for military: Thousands of runners evacuated from Jersey Shore after explosion inside trash can — and there 'may be a second device' Authorities say pipe bomb exploded shortly before the Semper Five Run at Seaside Park, New Jersey The bomb was in a garbage can when it exploded, leaving no injuries The race, which is a 5K to benefit marines and sailors, was canceled because of the blast A pipe bomb exploded in a Jersey Shore town shortly before thousands of runners were due to take part...

For more than a century, oysters were so plentiful in the waters off New Jersey they were hawked on street corners the same way pretzels or hot dogs are today. But the industry fell on hard times when overharvesting and two strains of disease nearly wiped out the population in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. The steep decline took with it whole communities that depended on the oyster for survival. In recent years, Rutgers University scientists working with disease-resistant oysters and employing new technology have nursed the industry back to health and brought it to the brink of...

They've been descending on Cape May like fun-starved Shriners at some overbooked convention, feasting on the local fare and making a spectacle of themselves before flitting off with nary a goodbye. At least they're a quiet bunch. And not bad to look at, either. Monarch butterflies, their numbers swollen by favorable summer weather, have overtaken New Jersey's southern peninsula this year as they embark on their annual 2,000-mile journey to warmer climes in the mountains of central Mexico. The profusion of color is part of what naturalists predict will be the largest monarch migration through New Jersey and other eastern...