Station 119: From Lifesaving to Marine Research

It had been U.S. Coast Guard Station No. 119, from which Guardsmen would conduct rescue and other operations in the waters between Atlantic City and the southern end of Long Beach Island, NJ. Then it was decommissioned, abandoned, and a victim of fire, vandalism, and the elements on the edge of a remote salt marsh. Ultimately this relic of American coastal history was rescued by Rutgers University and it has become an ideal scientific research facility. Today, instead of saving mariners' lives at sea, it is helping to save our marine and estuarine environment.

Author Ken Able, the director of the field station, explores this past, the current research, and the scientists who have worked here. He documents some of the earliest marine research, including the first scientific studies of New Jersey's oysters — once a thriving, booming resource. Today the station is home to wide-ranging studies — from measuring microscopic marine life (over a million samples have been carefully analyzed in the last quarter century) to deep-sea remotely-controlled submersibles. Maps, charts, scientific diagrams, and many historic photos of the station itself and of the early researchers at work in the environment add texture to the historical narrative.