Great Egg Harbor Bay (or Great Egg Harbor) is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

between

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and Cape May counties along the southern

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

coast. The name derives from Dutch explorer

Cornelius Jacobsen May Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (in Dutch often rendered as Cornelius Jacobsz. May) was a Dutch explorer, captain and fur trader. Cape May, Cape May County, and the city of Cape May, New Jersey, are named after him.Russell Shorto, ''The Island at the Center ...

's description of the plentiful birds laying eggs, naming the waters ''Eyren Haven'', which translates to Egg Harbor in English. The bay has a total area of . Its depth ranges from shallow waters in the southern extension, called Peck Bay, to a deep channel. The

Great Egg Harbor River The Great Egg Harbor River is a river in South Jersey.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 It is one of the major rivers that traverse the largely pristine ...

and its 17

tributaries A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...

empty into the bay. During the

Sangamonian The Sangamonian Stage (or Sangamon interglacial) is the term used in North America to designate the last interglacial period. In its most common usage, it is used for the period of time between 75,000 and 125,000 BP.Willman, H.B., and J.C. Frye, 1 ...

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...

period, the Great Egg Harbor River existed as a

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...

that covered much of southern Cape May County. Over time, the waterway shifted its course, emptying into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

at the Great Egg Harbor Inlet between Ocean City and Longport. In the eastern periphery, the bay measures along the coast, bordered by Ocean City on the east.

History

During the

period, melting glaciers formed rivers that carried sediment to the coast of the

. The formative

existed as a

at that time, covering much of what is now

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are fiv ...

. Over time, the river established its course to its present location. Currently, the Great Egg Harbor River and its 17 tributaries drain into the Great Egg Harbor Bay. The waterway enters the ocean between Ocean City and Longport at the Great Egg Harbor Inlet. The first people in the region were the Leni-Lenape, who fished, clammed, and bathed in the summer months. In 1614, Dutch explorer

discovered the bay, surrounded by plentiful birds laying eggs. May named the waterway ''Eyren Haven'', translated to Egg Harbor. In 1693, the court of

appointed John Somers to operate the ferry service across the Great Egg Harbor Bay to Cape May County. That year, Somers purchased land from Thomas Budd, naming the property Somerset Plantation. John Somers' son, Richard, built

Somers Mansion Somers Mansion is a historic house at Shore Road and Somers Point Circle in Somers Point, New Jersey, United States. It was built in 1725 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. See also * National Register of Historic ...

sometime between 1720 and 1726, which remains the oldest house still in existence in the county. The town name was changed to Somers Ferry, and then Somers Plantation, until the name

Somers Point Somers Point is a city that is the oldest settlement in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was settled by Europeans in 1693 and was incorporated as a borough in 1886. Somers Point was incorporated as a city in 1902. As of the 2 ...

became established in 1750. During the 17th and 18th centuries, pirates and other boaters used Great Egg Harbor Bay as refuge. In 1880, one year after Ocean City was established as a Christian resort, regular

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

service from Somers Point began. In 1897, the eastern boundaries of Peck Bay and Great Egg Harbor Bay served as the boundaries of newly established Ocean City.

Crossings

In 1907, the

Atlantic City and Shore Railroad The Shore Fast Line was an electric interurban railroad running from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Ocean City, New Jersey, by way of the mainland communities of Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood and Somers Point. The line of about ran from 1907 ...

railroad line began operations, running from

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

to Ocean City via Somers Point. The railroad's bridge across the Great Egg Harbor Bay burned in 1946, and was not rebuilt; the line was abandoned in 1948. In 1914, the Ocean City Automobile Bridge Company financed the construction of a toll bridge linking Somers Point and Ocean City. In 1921, the bridge became free when it was bought by the state of New Jersey, and was entirely replaced by the World War Memorial Bridge in 1933. This bridge, designated

New Jersey Route 52 Route 52 is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway runs from 9th Street in Ocean City, Cape May County north to U.S. Route 9 (New Road) in Somers Point, Atlantic County. It is composed mostly of a se ...

, was itself replaced by a wider and taller bridge in 2012. In 1928, a bridge in northern Ocean City opened, crossing Great Egg Harbor Inlet to marshlands in

Atlantic County Atlantic County is a county located along the southern coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county had a population of 274,534. Also in 1928, the Ocean City Automobile Club financed the

Beesley's Point Bridge The Beesley's Point Bridge was a bridge in New Jersey, United States, that was built privately by the Ocean City Automobile Club in 1927. Completed in 1928, control of the bridge was acquired by the Beesley's Point Bridge Company. It was a toll br ...

, which connected Somers Point to

Beesley's Point, New Jersey Beesley's Point is an unincorporated community in Upper Township, in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. Beesley's Point is on Peck Bay across from Ocean City. Beesley's Point is home to the Beesley's Point Generating Station and one end ...

via the Great Egg Harbor Bay. This bridge was closed in 2004 due to damage, and was demolished in 2016. In 1955, the

Great Egg Harbor Bridge The Great Egg Harbor Bridge is a series of four bridges along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, with Toll bridge, tolls collected in the southbound direction. It crosses the Great Egg Harbor Bay, connecting Upper Township, New Jersey, Upper ...

was built, and a parallel bridge carrying northbound traffic of the

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jersey ...

opened in 1973. The 1955 bridge was replaced in 2016, and the northbound bridge was subsequently refurbished, with completion in 2019.

Features

At the

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...

of the Great Egg Harbor Bay, the Great Egg Harbor River joins the Middle and Tuckahoe Rivers between Upper Township and

Egg Harbor Township Egg Harbor Township is a township in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The U.S. Census Bureau in the 2020 census reported the population as 47,842, an increase of 4,519 over the 43,323 counted in the previous decade in the 2010 ...

. The bay is part of New Jersey's backbarrier lagoon system. The bay exists as a drowned, or submerged, river valley. The waterway covers an area of , measuring along the coast, and extending inland. The tidal range varies from a

spring tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ca ...

to a neap tide. Coastal storms can cause extreme tidal variations. The bay has a

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...

between 17 and 32 ppt (

parts per thousand In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they ...

), classified as

polyhaline Polyhaline is a salinity category term applied to brackish estuaries and other water bodies with a salinity between 18 and 30 parts per thousand In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small val ...

. The tidal circulation of the bay is counterclockwise, fed by the deep channels. The quality of the water is good, despite nearby urban development and

dissolved oxygen Oxygen saturation (symbol SO2) is a relative measure of the concentration of oxygen that is dissolved or carried in a given medium as a proportion of the maximal concentration that can be dissolved in that medium at the given temperature. It ca ...

. Stormwater drains in nearby Ocean City feed directly into the bay. Adjacent to the bay is of salty

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es, which in the western portion of the bay is part of Lester G. McNamara Wildlife Management Area. The bay is also bounded by sandy beaches and settlements. Water depth in the bay range from less than to greater than in the main water channel, which extends from the Great Egg Harbor Inlet to the mouth of the Tuckahoe and Great Egg Harbor rivers. The channels in the bay carry sand and shell debris to the Great Egg Harbor Inlet. At the inlet, the shifting currents produce a hazardous waterway to boats, due to changes in the channel related to shoaling. To improve navigation and replenish beaches in Ocean City, the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

has periodically dredged sand from a location offshore the Great Egg Harbor Inlet. Peck's Bay is a shallow extension of Great Egg Harbor Bay, located on the waterway's southern periphery between Ocean City and the Cape May County mainland. Peck's Bay also serves as part of the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following th ...

, connecting the Great Egg Harbor Bay with Crook Horn Creek. This waterway is along the west side of Ocean City, which reaches the ocean at

Corson Inlet Corson Inlet is a narrow strait on the southern coast of New Jersey in the United States. Corson Inlet leads from the Atlantic Ocean through barrier islands off the northeast coast of Cape May County, New Jersey. The Inlet separates Ocean City, Ne ...

, and also continues as the Intercoastal southward through Cape May County.

Islands

Sediment from the rivers produce

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

s and

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s, which rise out of the bay to form a series of marshy islands. The islands are gradually eroding at a rate of per year, due to

rising sea levels Rising may refer to: * Rising, a stage in baking - see Proofing (baking technique) *Elevation * Short for Uprising, a rebellion Film and TV * "Rising" (''Stargate Atlantis''), the series premiere of the science fiction television program ''Starga ...

. From 1940 to 1991, the islands decreased in size by 5%. Some of the largest islands include Cowpens Island and Shooting Island, both of which are adjacent to Ocean City. Shooting Island, part of Cape May Wetlands Wildlife Management Area, has been eroding since at least 1930. In 2018, Act Engineers Inc. began a $2.75 million project to install of concrete blocks, which would provide shelter for oysters and restore the island's marshes. In the middle of the bay are the Rainbow Islands, which total in area, but which are submerged during high tide.

Ecosystem

The waterway and its channels carrying silt produce a soft bottom, creating a good habitat for

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

that covers a area. Other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s in the bay include mussels, barnacles,

amphipods Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descri ...

mysids Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in this ...

, and worms. In shallow waters where sunlight can reach the bottom, algae and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

es grow. The bay serves as breeding grounds for

hard clam The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince ...

s and oysters. There are 32 species of fish in the bay, including six species that use the bay as spawning grounds. The endangered

Leatherback sea turtle The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights ...

, and other turtle species, occupy the coastal waters of New Jersey, including in the bay. Dozens of bird species use the water and adjacent marsh lands as breeding grounds. Cowpens Island, located within the bay, is a bird sanctuary and a heron

rookery A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals (true seals and sea lions), and ev ...

. The region is one of the top 20 migratory bird locations in the country.

Industry

By the 18th century, Somers Point had several

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

s along the Great Egg Harbor Bay, supporting the shipbuilding industry. Shellfish harvesting is allowed from November 1 to April 30.

Jet ski Jet Ski is the brand name of a personal watercraft (PWC) manufactured by Kawasaki, a Japanese company. The term is often used generically to refer to any type of personal watercraft used mainly for recreation, and it is also used as a verb to ...

operations are popular along the bay in the summertime. The barrier islands to the north and south – Ocean City and Longport – are heavily developed, with bulkheads modifying the natural coastline.
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References

{{Authority control Bays of New Jersey Bodies of water of Atlantic County, New Jersey Bodies of water of Cape May County, New Jersey