Shore's ecotourism taking off amid marshes like the gulf's

WILDWOOD CREST - It's Day 70 of the gulf oil spill, and the pontoon boat the Skimmer is being steered from the lush, green salt marsh in Jarvis Sound, where passengers have just witnessed the splendor of hundreds of nesting osprey, laughing gulls, and American oyster catchers.

Ginny Powell, the craft's captain, launches into her usual talk about the importance of protecting the wetlands - a kind of nursery for many ocean animal and plant species - and, new this season, the toll the BP oil spill will have on the Gulf of Mexico and its estuaries. The gulf's wetlands environment is similar to New Jersey's, Powell says. And she tells them that nearby Cape May is the third-largest commercial fishing port in the nation.

She is dressed in a T-shirt - $7.99 for anyone who cares to buy one - that bears the primitive drawing of a line of offshore wind turbines, an oil platform, and the words "Windmills Don't Leak."

Whether the dozen or so tourists aboard the 40-foot vessel already revered the Jersey Shore environment or were converted during the two-hour Salt Marsh Safari, it was clear by outing's end that Powell was preaching to the choir. References by passengers to the Gulf Coast disaster were frequent.

"We don't know what the effects of it are going to be in years to come. That's the scary part," said Powell, 59, who has spent her entire life on the waters off Cape May County, boating, fishing, and now making a living running her tours three times a day from April to November out of the Dolphin Cove Marina here and the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor.

Cape May County locales such as Stone Harbor and Cape May have long been attractive to birders and other outdoors enthusiasts and environmentalists. But less obvious places, such as Wildwood Crest's rustic back-bay salt marsh, have recently joined the growing list of destinations for visitors who want to see nature up close.

"The marsh is just as beautiful here as it is in, say, Cape May. It's like this up and down the entire coast," said Powell as her boyfriend, Ed Garrison, 51, steered the pontoon gently toward a nest of laughing gull chicks, getting so close you could see how the light breeze tugged on their tiny, downy feathers. "People are becoming more aware of [the marsh's] simple beauty and its importance to the environment, and they want to get and out see it."

Ecotourism - from tramping down nature trails to spy herons or egrets, kayaking the back bays, or whale- and dolphin-watching off Cape May - generates $422 million annually in Cape May County, about double what it did a decade ago, according to Diane F. Wieland, director of the county Department of Tourism.

An additional $100 million is generated annually through ecotourism in Atlantic, Cumberland and Ocean Counties, according to state figures.

Ten years ago, recreational fishing was the state's top environmental-related activity. Wildlife-viewing recently has edged out angling because it is cheaper - and easier to navigate by middle-aged and older tourists - according to Pete Dunne, director of New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory.

The observatory welcomes tens of thousands of birders to what is considered one of the top bird-watching spots in North America - especially during the fall and spring migrations, Dunne said. It has had to add more and more tours and walks to its schedule to meet demand, he said.

Green already was in, Wieland said. But "what's happening in the gulf right now is getting people thinking about what we have to offer right here."

Others in the ecotourism industry also have seen their business increase. So popular were whale- and dolphin-watching cruises aboard the 110-foot Cape May Whale Watcher that the family-run company added a sister ship, the Spirit of Cape May, to its fleet two years ago, according to Capt. Jeff Stewart Jr. Stewart's father started the cruises in 1993 when the area began to see a resurgence in the ocean mammals.

"It used to be that people came to the Shore, and all they wanted to do was lay on the beach. Now, they want to know about that beach and what happens all around it," said Powell, as she handed out wisps of a salty, crunchy wetlands plant called Sally Corn for her passengers to taste.

"It's a process, an evolution that you can really see happening as people become more hungry for knowledge, especially during the crisis in the gulf," she said.

Karen and Ed Monroy, of Flemington, N.J., took Powell's Salt Marsh Safari specifically because of what has been happening down south. They wanted the chance to "observe and appreciate" the Shore's natural environment, Karen Monroy said.

"To think we could lose all this, it's beyond comprehension," she said.

Betsy Schnorr, a board of trustee member for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and president of Save the Environment of Moorestown (STEM), said the silver lining in the gulf oil crisis might be that it leads to a change in energy policy.

"I think the spill will cause an explosion in environmental awareness, and I'm optimistic that will be a catalyst for changing and planning better energy policy . . . so places like this, that are the jewels of our environment, aren't threatened," said Schnorr, aboard the Skimmer this week.

"When people can come to the Shore and take a tour like this . . . they can relate it to what's happening down in Louisiana. It makes them really stop and think, and then act."

Salt Marsh Safari: 609-884-3100 or www.skimmer.com.

Cape May Whale Watcher and the Spirit of Cape May: 800-786-5445 or 609-884-5445 or www.capemaywhalewatcher.com.

Cape May Bird Observatory: 609-861-0700 or www.birdcapemay.org.

Cape May County Department of Tourism: 1-800-227-2297 or 609-463-6415 or www.thejerseycape.com for other eco-tourism opportunities.

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