One of the spring’s most popular environmental education events, Ocean Fun Days, will be held this year from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 17 at Island Beach State Park in Seaside Park, and May 18 at the headquarters of the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium (NJSGC) in the historic Fort Hancock section of Sandy Hook.
Visitors will be able to enjoy educational displays, eco-tours, classes and hands-on activities and exhibits that celebrate the wonders of the Jersey Shore and teach how to preserve its natural resources.
Activities at both locations will include seining, coastal crafts, an energy-saving scavenger hunt, youth fishing clinics, face painting, touch tanks, a student science fair competition and the NJSGC’s famous fiddler crab races. Additionally, there will be a new clamming-the-bay activity at Island Beach State Park.
The Sandy Hook location will include guided tours of Sandy Hook’s historic sites, and there will be an open house at the NOAA/James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory.
Complimentary shuttle bus service will be available at both locations to take visitors to tour sites. Admission and parking will be free. For more information and directions, visit njseagrantconsortium.org.