More attention than ever is being paid to rejuvenating Barnegat Bay, but problems remain, scientists, environmentalists and politicians said Thursday night at a marathon meeting of the Save Barnegat Bay organization.

The group held its annual meeting Thursday night in Lavallette, where experts updated those in attendance on the state of the waterway that spans the length of Ocean County.

"I've been around the bay for a long, long time, and in my life I've never seen so much concern and drive among the politicians to do something," said Rutgers University research professor Mike Kennish, referring to the implementation of Gov. Chris Christie's 10-point plan to save the bay.

The governor, on Jan. 5, signed several bills into law that are aimed at protecting the bay. One of those laws requires the nation's toughest regulation of fertilizer ingredients, specifically nitrogen, which spur the growth of algae and sea lettuce that, in turn, block the growth of native eelgrass beds. Eelgrass beds provide a nesting place for the larvae of finfish and shellfish.

But while most agreed that the package of laws, which also includes regulations on soil compaction and stormwater basin cleanup, are a step in the right direction, problems remain.

War on Sea Nettles

The stinging sea nettle, a small jellyfish that can pack a mean sting, has invaded the northern portion of the bay this season worse than ever before, said Dr. Paul Bologna, a researcher at Montclair State University who studies the bay.

He said rising sea temperatures, lower oxygen concentrations, changes in food webs (species that used to eat the jellyfish are no longer in abundance due to overfishing and other factors) and even genetic adaptations are causing the sea nettles to multiply in big numbers.

Bologna said sea nettles have actually been in the bay dating back prior to the year 1900, but they only began to multiply rapidly in the past decade or so. They are especially adaptable to the northern bay's lack of oxygen and lower levels of salinity due to the influx of fresh water from the Toms and Metedeconk rivers, so they can live where their predators cannot.

What's worse than the nettles' sting is their diet, Bologna said.

"They are voracious predators," he said. "They eat things like oyster larvae, blue crab larvae and fish larvae."

But while environmentalists have frequently tied increased nitrogen levels to the proliferation of sea nettles, Bologna said the latest research is showing that the switch from chemically treated lumber to plastics in dock and bulkhead construction have been the primary driver of the invasion.

Plastic and vinyl docks are good because they are nontoxic, Bologna said, "but bad because animals can settle on them."

In fact, he said, sea nettle polyps are now overwintering on plastic floating docks left in the water. He suggests those who live on the bay pull their floating docks when they end their boating season.

Tackling Nitrogen, Runoff

But just because high nitrogen levels might not be the be-all and end-all of the sea nettle invasion, policymakers shouldn't abandon efforts to reduce it.

Willie deCamp, Save Barnegat Bay's president, said the eel grass beds that foster the life of finfish and shellfish larvae are getting destroyed because nitrogen-induced plant growth is cutting off sunlight to the native grasses. Another reason for the decline in eelgrass is runoff, fertilizer and, according to deCamp, most importantly, rain contaminated by the use of fossil fuels.

That's where he thinks Christie's plan to clean up the bay didn't go far enough.

"Governor Christie has put more energy into Barnegat Bay than any other governor, but the administration has to listen better," deCamp said. "We have to get the subject of clean air into the program."

On that front, Assemblyman John McKeon, an Essex County Democrat, spoke before the group and criticized Christie for pulling out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a state-by-state cap and trade program designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

McKeon, who maintains a summer home in Brick's barrier island section, also criticized Christie for vetoing a bill that would have allowed Ocean County towns to assess fees on developers to help pay for stormwater basin improvements with the aim of reducing runoff into the bay. The Ocean County freeholder board came out squarely against the measure, saying it would have resulted in extra taxes directed solely on Ocean County residents and businesses.

McKeon did concede, however, that the Republican governor's brokering of a deal to shutter the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant 10 years before its license expired represented a "good compromise."

The Bay's Future

Most of Save Barnegat Bay's experts said there was much work to be done before the bay's problems could be fully understood. But the good news is that the work is, indeed, being done.

Kennish, the Rutgers professor, said researchers from the state university, Monmouth University, Montclair State University and Georgian Court University all have projects in the works that are actively researching the bay estuary. That, combined with action from the Department of Environmental Protection to implement and enforce the regulations in the bills passed earlier this year, is a step in the right direction, he said.

"Everyone is finally coming together," he said.