County Residents and Visitors Can Vote for Favorite Beaches

SANDY HOOK –– Attention Cape May County beach lovers.
Your chance to have your favorite piece of sandy real estate considered among the state’s best is here.
According to a Feb. 7 press release, the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium, New Jersey Sea Grant, the Richard Stockton College Coastal Research Center and the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism have teamed up to give beachgoers the opportunity to vote for their favorite beach with the New Jersey’s Top Ten Beaches Survey via its official voting Web site www.njtoptenbeaches.org.
Marsha Samuel, the survey’s project manager, told the Herald this is the first year for the contest, which was conceived by Rutgers marine science professor Stewart Farrell and the Consortium’s communications director Kim Kosko.
“Dr. Farrell and his team of researchers do an annual check of the state’s beaches rating them based on numerous physical factors, including: beach width, condition, size of breaking waves, frequency of rip currents, noise, wildlife, pests, vegetation and many others,” Samuel said.
“This year his results will be used in addition to the results of the survey in determining the top ten beaches,” he said.
Knowing that different people go to the beach for different reasons, Samuel said developers decided to offer four categories for survey takers to choose from, including: family vacation, tourism, ecotourism and shore events.
For each category, the survey asks visitors choose their favorite beach from a list of over 60 state beaches (17 in this county) and rate it on six characteristics from excellent to poor.
The first four characteristics for each category are the same: accessibility, aesthetics, amenities and water quality. The last two are different for each category.
For family vacation, the survey asks about value of vacation dollar and ease of vacation planning, while for tourism it questions available shopping, dining and entertainment as well as expectation fulfillment.
The ecotourism category, however, asks survey takers to rate personal enrichment and environmental quality and diversity, while the shore-event category looks for ratings of total event experience and presentation of events.
In addition to the top ten beaches, Samuel said a winner for each category would be chosen.
The survey can be taken online now through April 30 and the winners will be announced at the Annual New Jersey State of the Shore media event on May 22nd at The Seagull’s Nest on Sandy Hook.
According to the consortium, the mayor of the winning town or municipality will be invited to attend the event to receive the 1st Annual New Jersey’s Top Beach Award. All communities with winning beaches will receive signage announcing the honor as well as bragging rights on the Jersey Shore for the 2008 summer season.
County beaches on the list include: Avalon, Cape May City, Cape May Meadows, Cape May Point, Cape May Wildlife Refuge, Corsons Inlet State Park, Lower Township, North Cape May, North Wildwood, Ocean City, Reeds Beach, Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor, Strathmere, Villas, Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.
Don’t forget to vote for your favorite.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com