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Model Education Program Grows to Statewide Magnitude By Jared Eudell 
In
1996 Captain Bill Sheehan, then executive director of HEART (Hackensack Estuary
and River Tenders), began partnering with the NJ Department of Environmental
Protection (NJDEP) on a new outreach initiative called the Harbor Estuary Urban
Fishing Program (UFP). It was a one-day
event with several urban schools to teach kids to fish, and more importantly,
to not eat the fish they catch. While
this may seem like a cruel ruse, the reason for the restriction is because
there is a blanket of toxic sediments on the bottom of the waterways that has
been contaminating the food chain for roughly 150 years. “In 1996, when we
started the program, it was a means to share fish consumption advisories with
young people in the hope that they would take that information home to their
families,” said Kerry Kirk Pflugh, creator of the program and manager of the
Office of Watershed Education, Estuaries and Monitoring of NJDEP’s Division of
Watershed Management. Today,
the program is a successful partnership between Hackensack Riverkeeper® and
NJDEP and has evolved into a four-day curriculum that includes such concepts as
watershed management, stewardship, the public trust doctrine and public health
concerns. Now
in its 10th year, the program services nine middle school classes totaling
about 200 kids in the high-risk communities along the banks of the Newark Bay
Complex (Newark Bay, Hackensack River, Passaic River, Arthur Kill, Kill Van
Kull, and their tidal tributaries). This brings our 10-year total to about 70
schools and 2,000 families that are now aware of the dangers of eating locally
caught fish and crabs. Because
of more stringent advisories in other state waterways and mounting pressure to
disseminate this life saving information, the State hopes that the UFP could be
used as a model across New Jersey. “We
are making attempts to expand the program into Camden, Trenton, and wherever we
can identify a partner to work with us,” said Pflugh. For more information about
fish consumption advisories in your local waters: In New Jersey: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/njmainfish.htm In New York: http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/fish/fish.htm
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