121 



In 1992 the DEPE conducted 54 low-altitude flights (95.3 flight hours) along the 

 shores of the Hudson-Raritan estuaries and along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline from 

 Sandy Hook to Cape May. The flight schedule consists of four short flights per week 

 covering Sandy Hook to Island Beach State Park, Raritan Bay, and the Lower Harbor 

 north to Governors Island in New York. Two extended flights per week included 

 the Atlantic Coast to Cape May Point. From July 1 to August 26, 1992, financial 

 constraints reduced the schedule to three flights per week. The routine schedule 

 resumed on August 26 and continued until the end of the season on September 11. 

 Table C in the Appendix summarizes the flight logs of the surveillance flights. 



From 1988 through 1992, the DEPE used a helicopter to conduct coastal 

 surveillance flights. However, as a result of financial constraints DEPE will use a 

 fixed-wing aircraft for these flights in 1993. 



Another problem that threatens New Jersey's bathing beaches is the potential for 

 floatable debris such as wood, trash and medical waste to wash up onto bathing 

 beaches. Aerial surveillance of the coast enables the DEPE to locate floating debris 

 and the sources of that debris. Once the DEPE has located the debris and its sources, 

 the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program Floatables Action Plan and 

 Operation Clean Shores can work to prevent the debris from washing up onto the 

 beaches. 



Through the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program Floatables Action 

 Plan, the CCMP coordinates efforts with the United States Army Corps of Engineers 

 to use nets to capture debris floating in the ocean. Operation Clean Shores, a joint 

 effort of the DEPE, the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and coastal 

 municipalities, removes floatable debris from areas where extreme high tides can 

 return it to the ocean, which can then wash the debris onto bathing beaches. 

 Through October, 1992, Operation Clean Shores removed 10.06 million pounds or 

 18,291 cubic yards of debris from 72.1 miles of shoreline, including the Sandy Hook 

 Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area and areas of the Hackensack 

 Meadowlands. In the four years since the program began, more than 35 million 

 pounds of floatable debris has been removed. Operation Clean Shores has been 

 expanded to include the Hudson-Raritan, Delaware and barrier island estuaries and 

 will perform cleanups year-round. 



Surveillance flights have shown that the quantity of floatable debris present 

 in the harbor waterways has continued to decrease since 1990. No beaches were 

 closed in 1991 or 1992 due to floatable debris. The DEPE believes that the CCMP, the 

 Floatables Action Plan and Operation Clean Shores all contributed to this 

 improvement. 



