Money Island NJ commercial fishing and crabbing docks

Money Island is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) that is the smallest and most remote of five rural communities that make up Downe Township in

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Cumberland, historic county *Cumberlan ...

in the U.S. state of

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 ...

. The road that led to the development of Money Island was constructed in the late 1930s. In the 1940s, the first homes were constructed in the community. The community is located on the shore of the Delaware Bay on the southern side of

Nantuxent Creek Nantuxent Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 estuary of Delaware Bay in Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, New Jersey in the United Stat ...

. Its location may be described as the southwest corner of New Jersey. Money Island is a low-income community which has been devastated by

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

and Hurricane Sandy. Local opinions have been divided regarding participation in the Blue Acres buy-out program, part of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's process of managed retreat. Money Island remains the second most important seafood landing port in southern New Jersey. The Money Island Marina and more than a dozen seafood harvesters or aquaculture businesses remain, with estimated annual sales of about $20 million. Products include

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

blue claw crab ''Callinectes sapidus'' (from the Ancient Greek ,"beautiful" + , "swimmer", and Latin , "savory"), the blue crab, Atlantic blue crab, or regionally as the Chesapeake blue crab, is a species of crab native to the waters of the western Atlantic O ...

soft-shell crab Soft-shell crab is a culinary term for crabs that have recently molted their old exoskeleton and are still soft. Soft-shells are removed from the water as soon as they molt or, preferably, just before to prevent any hardening of their shell. Ca ...

menhaden Menhaden, also known as mossbunker and bunker and "the most important fish in the sea", are forage fish of the genera ''Brevoortia'' and ''Ethmidium'', two genera of marine fish in the family Clupeidae. ''Menhaden'' is a blend of ''poghaden'' ...

conch Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Am ...

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

s and

horseshoe crab Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachn ...

s (for medical research). Horseshoe crab harvesting was discontinued after 2016. As of June 2016, the number of full-time residents had dropped below 20, and fewer than 10 of its original 40+ houses were occupied. A partnership of non-profit organizations—including

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

, BaySave, a New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation, the

Partnership for the Delaware Estuary The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) is a regional nonprofit organization established in 1996 to take a leadership role in protecting and enhancing the Delaware Estuary, where fresh water from the Delaware River mixes with salt water from ...

, and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

—are engaged in shoreline-stabilization research projects, attempting to arrest the erosion impact of rising waters. Beacon Publishing Group released the book
The Drowning of Money Island
' in November 2019 by autho
Andrew S. Lewis
The book featured the story of Tony Novak in his efforts to find sustainability for the community. Since much of the original story copy was trimmed during editing, Novak proposed a follow-up publication called "After the Drowning" that is in early stage production now. The small Money Island community suffered significant losses during Covid years of 2020 and 2021 including the death of five key members and long term disability of others. Looting and storm damage left the infrastructure in poor condition. The few small fishery businesses operating at Money Island were approved for, but did not receive, Covid recovery funding. Tony Novak CPA relocated his office to Money Island and rebranded the combined operations under the trade name Nantuxent Group in an attempt to help with recovery. The marina, bait shop, charter boats, boat rental and crab business remain closed to the public at the end of the 2022 season. As of November 2022, Money Island had less than 5 full time year-round residents.

Demographics

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, the population was 22.

References

{{Cumberland County, New Jersey Downe Township, New Jersey Managed retreat Populated places in Cumberland County, New Jersey Unincorporated communities in New Jersey Census-designated places in Cumberland County, New Jersey Census-designated places in New Jersey