If you are like us and do most of your shopping from the comfort of your home, you can also support your favorite nonprofit while shopping with Amazon.

Visit the Amazon Smile Program at https://smile.amazon.com/.

You will be asked to select your favorite nonprofit.  Ours is officially called the Barnegat Bay Decoy & Baymen’s Museum.  The Amazon Smile site works just like the regular Amazon site.  They look identical.  The only difference is when you log in through the Amazon Smile portal, 0.5% of your purchases price will be donated by Amazon to the charity you selected.  There is no cost to sign up for or to use Amazon Smile and it takes less than 30 seconds.

To learn more about Amazon Smile:  http://smile.amazon.com/

 

Tuckerton Seaport began hosting a Giving Tree back in 2012 right after Superstorm Sandy.  The storm’s devastation in the local community prompted us to think how we connect those in need with those who wanted to give back. The Seaport reached out the local schools and the food pantry to see how we could best help.  The number of families affected was tremendous.  With the holidays right around the corner, spreading some holiday cheer became more of a priority.  In partnership with the schools and the pantry, we gathered a list of local children in need.  Each child’s wish list was hung on a tag on our Giving Tree.   Secret Santas selected a local child in need to purchase holiday gifts for from the tree.  This tradition has continued ever since.  This year’s tree had 53 children on it.  Over the past 5 years this program has provided holiday gifts for 1,294 local children.  While the Secret Santas remain anonymous, please know how much your generosity is appreciated on Christmas morning.

My name is Rebecca Garman and I am currently an intern here at the Tuckerton Seaport. I’m a senior at William Paterson University, majoring in Anthropology with minors in Psychology and Health Studies, ready to graduate this upcoming May. Although an internship is not mandatory for Anthropology majors at William Paterson, I am fascinated in learning about the daily operations of running a museum whether large or small. After being a Tuckerton resident for almost my entire life, I am just now learning all of the rich history that Tuckerton has to offer to both current residents and visitors alike.

Before I began my internship here at the Seaport, I knew very little about the history of not only Tuckerton, but the areas surrounding it as well. It seems crazy after living here for almost my entire life to not know anything about my town; however, in our society today we are all guilty of being engulfed in media and technology. Because of the role that technology now plays in our lives, many of us fail to go out and explore the area around us.

Many people come to the Seaport not only to visit the Tucker’s Island Lighthouse, but the other exhibits as well, including decoys on display in “open storage” in the Hunting Shanty. Since starting my internship here in September, I have had the opportunity to create a new exhibit about decoys in the Hunting Shanty. Because I knew very little about decoys starting this exhibit, the whole process of putting it together was an incredible learning experience that I would not get sitting in a lecture. I worked with Seaport staff and board members, and members of the New Jersey Decoy Collectors Association, to gain the background information to put together the display, and read books about writing exhibition labels to help me craft labels that are interesting and informative. This exhibit is fun for both children and adults, and is an introduction to decoys that provides you not only with some basic knowledge about decoys, but with some fun facts about them that you may not know as well.

Unlike exhibits that you visit elsewhere, these decoys are not behind glass, so it gives you the chance to interact with the objects while you explore what decoys are made out of, their uses, and the tools used to make them. The labels are color-coded and explore topics such as decoy construction, use and materials. In addition to being able to interact with the decoys, with each decoy there is also a question pertaining to it along with the answer, such as “What is the difference between a Barnegat Bay decoy and a Delaware River decoy?” Along with learning about decoys here in New Jersey, you will have the opportunity to learn about the different materials decoys are made out of, how they are made, as well as their numerous uses. I hope you will come visit the Hunting Shanty to see this new display, and learn a little more about this folk art that is so important to our region!

Please join us on September 24 and 25, 2016 for the grand re-opening of our Gift Shop!  Special thanks to our volunteers, workers and staff for all their hard work in restoring the Gift Shop after the damage caused by the fire sprinklers.  The new shop looks great!

Please click on and print out the page below to receive a 10% discount on any one item (excluding consignment items, books, art, decoys and baskets)!

 

Three of the Seaport’s duck boats sailed in the 2016 World Duck Boat Races held at the Mantoloking Yacht Club on August 26.   Seventy-seven boats participated and the Tuck Duck (sail number TS-1) skippered by Carrter Pearce came in first place!  The Lewiston (sail number TS-3) was skippered by Michael Ehnot and came in fourth place, while Carrson Pearce skippered the Calcasieu (sail number TS-2) to a 3-way tie for 26th place.  Congratulations to all on a job well-done!

Please check out the World Ducks Facebook page for the complete standings and some great pictures from the races:   2016 World Duck Boat Races

 

The Seaport thanks Sam Mehnert, lifelong resident of Tuckerton, for writing this guest blog post to help us understand the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go.  Sam often visits the Seaport with her friends and family.  In August, Sam will be heading off to West Virginia University to study Forensic and Investigative Science with a concentration in Chemistry.

On July 6^th, a new and highly anticipated mobile game known as Pokémon GO was released for both iPhone and Android devices. Taking North America by storm, the game gained instant popularity, but some people are still unfamiliar with this game, and take it to be just another one of the many Pokémon games already in stores.

However, this new resurgence of interest in a Pokémon is not just because it is a new game—it is a new type of game that forces players to go outside and explore the world around them. Known as an augmented reality (AR) game, Pokémon GO utilizes both the camera and GPS signal of a player’s phone to immerse them in a real-world Pokémon game. Essentially, an AR game takes a person’s current view of the world and alters it in real-time to look a little different.

Once signed in, a player will be taken through a tutorial and a character-creation screen. At a point in the tutorial, the player will be instructed to catch a Pokémon from the ones surrounding them. As with all Pokémon games, the first three you see are what known as “starter” Pokémon. In this game, the starters are Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle.

But beware! Even though they are all currently surrounding you, you can only choose ONE to catch at this time. There will be other opportunities to catch the other starters, but they may not be as common as other Pokémon, so choose wisely! I chose Charmander, and have not encountered another one since then, but I have caught a couple Bulbasaurs and a Wartortle (the evolved version of Squirtle).

Whatever starter is chosen does not impact the game as far as I can tell. The only way that it impacts the game is that it gives you your first Pokémon registered to your Pokédex, your encyclopedia on Pokémon.

Once the tutorial is complete, the player is now free to explore the world of Pokémon!

CATCHING POKÉMON:

By going outside and walking around, a player will encounter more Pokémon at random. When a Pokémon appears on the phone screen, the player must tap the Pokémon and they will be taken to screen like this:

The player must swipe the Pokéball up toward the Pokémon to catch it, as will be shown in the tutorial. Just remember, you do not have unlimited Pokéballs, so aim carefully!

If the AR switch in the top right corner is turned off, the player will simply have to catch the Pokémon as previously stated. However, by turning on the AR switch, the player will have to take aim with their phone’s camera and do the same thing, adding a layer of difficulty (it’s not really much harder) and immersion.

Personally, I enjoy the AR feature, although it can get silly if you play inside of a building.

 

TRACKING AND ATTRACTING POKÉMON:

Pokémon GO does not throw Pokémon after Pokémon at you, though. You have to go outside and walk around! In the bottom right corner of the screen is a little tab with some Pokémon and Pokémon silhouettes. By clicking on this tab it enlarges it, showing you how far away a Pokémon is using little footprints.

If there are no footprints, the Pokémon is very close, generally in range to be caught and should appear shortly (although on occasion it might not), and three is the farthest away. The Pokémon in the top left of the list is the closest, and the bottom right is the farthest.

Another way to catch Pokémon more quickly are with lures and incenses. I have never used a lure, as I have never found one (to be explained later), but I do know they help not only the player that utilized it, but any other players within range of the lure. Unlike lures, incenses only help the player that used it for thirty minutes, causing Pokémon to appear more often.

As a last resort, desperate players can walk around to these patches of what appears to be rustled leaves that pop up every so often. Walking to these locations increases the chance that you will encounter a Pokémon, but does not guarantee their appearance.

POKÉSTOPS/GETTING MORE ITEMS:

Oh no! I have no more Pokéballs! What do I do?

Remember how I said the game forces the player to go outside and walk around? This is where that happens. When you run out of Pokéballs, you have to walk to a Pokéstop. These are indicated by little, floating blue cubes that are stationary and remain in the same location. These can be accesses several times a day, although they do have a cool-down time. It’s not long at all though! I walked to the Tuckerton Seaport to stop by several Pokéstops, and then I walked to a few others nearby. By the time I walked to them, the ones by the Seaport had already reset! Of course, I got them again on my way home.

Once the player is in range of a Pokéstop, indicated by the cube changing into the shape of a Pokéball, the player must spin the picture of whatever the Pokéstop is. The Tuckerton Seaport, the Historic Andrews/Bartlett Homestead, the Sea Captains of Tuckerton Memorial, the Antique Boat, the Hunting Shanty, Joe Dayton’s Sawmill, the Historic Little Red Saltbox, and the Historic Tucker’s Island Lighthouse are all Pokéstops very close to the Tuckerton Seaport.

 

Pokéstops can give a player several different items including Pokéballs, revives and potions, Eggs, and several other useful items, which are essential to playing the game.

GYMS:

Nearby the Seaport is a World War Native American Memorial Statue, but this isn’t a Pokéstop—this is a gym. To those unfamiliar with the classic Pokémon games, gyms are places where trainers battle their Pokémon to see who is the best. In this case, gyms are claimed by one of three teams: Instinct, Mystic, or Valor, indicated by a yellow, blue, or red color, respectively. I joined Mystic with a group of friends, as we never saw a lot of gyms claimed by the blue team. You can join a team at level five.

In order to “claim” a gym for your team, you have to walk to a gym. Once in range, you can battle the Pokémon defending the gym. To fight, simply tap to use your basic attack, and once the blue bars fill up, hold down for your special attack to deal more damage. Swipe left and right to dodge. This can be very difficult, and you will have to beat the gym several times to claim it. By claiming a gym, you can get free items. It has been shown to be rather difficult to hold a gym, however, as players are very competitive.

TIPS AND PRECAUTIONS:

Those are the basics of the game, and while people are still figuring out other aspects of the game and the creators are still tweaking it a bit, I would like to give some advice for players, both for staying safe and for having fun playing the game.

Tip 1: When and where you are DOES affect what type of Pokémon appear. While much of player strategy can be considered speculation at this point, as the game is still very new, some strategy seems to work out well, such as different environments presenting the player with different types of Pokémon. If you are near water, it is more likely that you will encounter more water-type Pokémon. Ghost Pokémon seem to appear more at night. So, if you are looking for specific types of Pokémon, try different environments!

Tip 2: Catch whatever appears if you have enough Pokéballs. Catching several of the same Pokémon is, believe it or not, a good thing! While doing so allows you to gain experience points, earn medals, and level your character up, which allows you to encounter better Pokémon, it also allows you to level your Pokémon up! By transferring your duplicates to the Professor by scrolling down on your Pokémon’s profile, you can transfer it to the Professor and gain a Pokémon candy! Be warned! You cannot get that Pokémon back once you transfer it! So if you accidentally transfer a Pokémon with a high Combat Power (CP), you can’t get it back!

Tip 3: Turn on battery saver! There is an option to turn on a battery saving option. Tap on the Pokéball, and then hit “Settings”. Check the box that says “Battery Saver”, and when your phone is angled down, the screen will dim greatly to a screensaver.

Tip 4: Tip: Tracking is tricky and only for those who really want to walk around and find Pokémon. With the Pokémon locator tab open, tap on whatever Pokémon you want to track, but DO NOT CLOSE THE TAB! You will not be able to see if you are getting closer to the Pokémon if you do this. Instead, walk in a direction and if the Pokémon is approaching the top left position going right to left in the list, you are getting closer. If not, try another direction! This can be very tedious depending on how far away the Pokémon is.

Tip 5: Don’t worry if the servers are down. They’ll be back up quickly! Completely close the app and try again a bit later.

Safety Tip 1: Do not go out alone at night. Seriously. In the few days that the game has been out, there have already been reports of people being lured to places by predators late at night and running into trouble. Try to avoid going outside late at night to that empty park by your house, but rather use an incense at your house and make sure that if you are out at night for any reason, stay with a group of friends!

Safety Tip 2: Don’t break the law, even for a rare Pokémon. While you may think you’re just playing a game and not harming anyone by jumping a fence to get into a park for a quick Pokémon hunt, you’re breaking the law and it does not matter that you are playing a game.

Safety Tip 3: DO. NOT. PLAY. AND. DRIVE. People on social media are posting how they are playing the game and driving, and considering the game is very involved, this is VERY dangerous and VERY illegal. Many people have been pulled over for playing the game while driving. Not only does this come with the threat of a ticket, but you risk your life, whoever else is in the car’s life, and the life of anybody you might hit. Please do not use your cell phone while driving!

Safety Tip 4: Watch where you’re walking. Even though the game warns players to stay aware of their surroundings, please watch where you are going as people have already been ignoring this warning.

The game has been very fun for many, and playing it with friends makes it an even better experience. Stay safe and have fun becoming the best Pokémon trainer there ever was!

“Two Old Baymen – An Interview” – Grove Conrad

Each day we see and hear history often unknowingly but  yesterday knowingly and at the urging of my dear wife Kathryn, we peered into a wonderful verbal history of The Bay –as two men, each  enjoying the eighty-something year of their lives, recalled it.

Arthur “Opie” Speck and Harry Disbrow Sr. were born in 1932 and 1933 respectively each coming into this world on the bay, our Bay, and save for a few years serving their country each spent their lives making a livelihood from what Barnegat Bay had to give them. In Mr. Specks case the Bay gave him fishes, boats, ducks along with riding the trucks of electric companies and electric plants ; while Mr. Disbrow chose to ride the waves of the summer indian invasion by buying and selling our version of Manhattan to the summer savages for the currency of the land – such wampum as he needed to breathe the bay-mud breeze he  thought was perfume.  Each of the two, along the way, managed to raise a family that, too, will be a part of what’s left.

Six of us sat and talked in the Seaport’ shanty, Hester Sedge, around an oak 30’s vintage dining room table. The original Hester Sedge is still standing as a gunner’s beacon out there west of Holgate. The Seaport’s Hester Sedge is a replica, restored and re-restored, a very appropriate setting for the us-six.  The six were Opie and Harry plus Opie’s wife Nancy (I ain’t getting’ another), me , Kathryn  ( I ain’t either) and whippersnapper Harry Jr.   Harry Jr. is the real deal and a Seaport founder – as for his credentials we learned during the table  tales  that “Young Harry”  dropped two blackducks back in sixty-eight with one shell out of his bolt action single barrel 20 gauge enough said !  When the story was told Harry “The Kid”, sitting across from me, just grinned like it was yesterday.

Harry and Opie each brought notes and squinted into them every so often as if the pages would improve hearing and memory – these scrawled words didn’t help their hearing but they sure brought “the memory movies” back.

What Kathy and I heard will be for the most part recorded in the Seaports three volume pictorial and annotated history of Barnegat Bay gunning clubs – an updated and tenfold larger work similar to Pat Burke’s little green book printed thirty years ago and still pretty cool.  Much of what we heard around the oak table will be a fill-in-the-blanks of Burke’s book. There are some take-aways that I will share with you now. Perhaps your Dad or Grandad might enjoy the tales, so pick one or two and sit around your table . Or as Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus would describe them: “Dey jes’ sot der talkin’bout ol’ times.”

Opie………okay, now the other shanty was called Star Shanty and it was owned by a politician, Steelman Mathis I think. It was on the meadows between Cape Horn and the mouth of Big Crick. Regularly, I would take four guys from Toms River out there late Friday afternoon with their 20 year old “wives”; drop them off with a case of whiskey and food for the week-end. I’d pick them up on Sunday and one of the politicians would give me a ten-dollar bill and put his finger to his lips “shhhh.”  I don’t think they shot many ducks.

…….anyway , on these ( near  the Fish Factory)  islands there were an awful lot of broadbill, my brother and I were gunnin’ in the two man box there and shortly we had 19 in the boat and here comes a redhead – bam! My brother asked “is that legal?” We also had lead shot in our lunch pail. What we didn’t know was that there were two or three game wardens watching us with binoculars from the Coast Guard station; they came fast to us in a black hulled boat. Well, it cost my brother $200 and me $250 because I had the lunch box.

……now, on Johnny’s Sedge, years ago, Rocky Wycoff put a six man box in there. I knew it was there and I cleaned it all up and we started hunting in there. Somehow Rocky found out we were gunning there and he went out there and knocked it all to pieces – nobody was going to hunt in his old box.

…. well, I guided for Shackleton (Sandy Island), he had fired his old guide because there weren’t no ducks and he said “I want you to get the ducks in.” I put out 600 pounds of cracked corn every day before season and before long we had 3,000 broadbills on the north end and 2,000 on the south end.  I’d take my party out and tell them not to load their guns until I got back in from setting out the decoys, Many mornings  as I was setting the  decoys a hundred or so broadbills would light in among me and the decoys and we didn’t want to get shot !. By seven in the morning we would have 38 ducks and when I said “one more round and that’s it” they would piss and moan and holler to stay out but we came in anyway with our 40 ducks limit.

Harry …….I got to tell you something you (Opie) forgot. You were gunning for Bill Inman (Loud Bill) and you took us out and, my god, we had 30 or 40 ducks. They never stopped. Star Shanty you talked about but north of that was a shanty that we called Conklin’s shanty and maybe 30 years ago Gormley’s and my son fixed it up, it was a good spot.  Well, I called it Miami Vice when four of them (wardens) came at us and I had no plug and lead shot and thank goodness we only had one duck. And up on the Wading River back in the 50’s – walking on the banks and holy hell – there were hundreds up there. Wood ducks, mallards, swans were all over the place, Not now.

And so it went for another hour.  Two and a half generations between us six.  The dozen shantys we talked about are gone, the ducks and the decoys are gone but Harry and Opie’s eyes still misty shine and their memories can smell the Bay and feel the cold and shoot the ducks.

 

The award-winning New Logic Educators Marine Science Camp, founded by Sherri Paris, is holding a camp for ages 6-12 during the week of July 18-22 at the Tuckerton Seaport. The campers are led by experienced marine scientists in a variety of sampling/seining techniques, and this year all of the data will be reported to the NJ DEP. Campers are led in a variety of marine science curriculum topics from sharks to turtles to ocean acidification, all aimed to enrich their knowledge of the marine environment. Staff members are educators, college graduates and college and high school students who specialize in marine science. The camp utilizes the unique location and activities of the Tuckerton Seaport to make this a unique and rich camp experience for all!

You can follow the camp at:

www.marinesciencecamp.com

www.newlogiceducators.com

For up to date camp info and pictures, please follow the camp on:

Facebook –“New Logic Educators” 

Instagram- “New Logic Ed”

Twitter “Sherri Paris@NewLogicEd” 

 

NJ Bacon Fest at Tuckerton Seaport!
Saturday, July 9, 2016 11am-8pm
Sunday, July 10, 2016 11am-6pm

Sizzle into summer with all things bacon, featuring food trucks and restaurants plus pig races and a bacon eating competition, “Battle of the Badges”, on Sunday. Who will win the Bacon Eating Championship belt? Whoever said nothing tastes as good as being skinny obviously never had bacon.

Ice cold beers on Tap!
Margarita slushy bar and wine sampling from Laurita Winery!

General Admission is $8. Children under 5 are free. Food prices set by individual food truck vendors.

Bud Light…
Beach haus- blonde ale
Kona- big wave gold
Landshark
Dos Equis Lager
Shock top
Stella cidre
Beach Haus Station to Station
Tommyknocker Nut Brown
Bluepoint Rastafarye

Vendors include:
Chimney Cake Factory
Dump N Roll
My Four Suns
Oink & Moo BBQ
Pompier Perogi Flats
Chop Shop BBQ
House of Cupcakes
Mexi Flip
Zinnas Mobile Bistro
Chimney Cake Factory
Kath’s Catering
Bacon Broads
Betty’s Ice Box
Cheezen
Guac Spot
Tot Cart
Bacon Bites
Philly Fry
WTF
Surf and Turf
Sum Pig
Waffles De Lys
Cajun Jax
Bespoke Bacon
Jerky James
Bacon Bites
Hungry Hound
Beerwick
Hot sauce for good
VooDoo Chili Sauce
Sinfully Delicious

AtlantiCare will also be here:
ARMC Health Engagement ~ Exhibiting general health & wellness information along with BMI/Body Fat analysis.
ARMC Physician Services ~ Exhibiting regional AtlantiCare services
Independent Fitness Specialist ~ “Ask the Trainer” – tips & advice on exercise, nutrition, anatomy, workouts, etc…

VIP Tickets! ($100/person) Only 100 of these exclusive passes will be sold! Includes
VIP Parking
Express Entry, don’t wait in line
VIP Reserved Seating area
VIP Lanyard
1 Craft Beer on the House
Refreshments in the VIP Zone (soda,water)
VIP Zone Cooking Demos (w/ samples)
Tuckerton Seaport Membership
Mixology class w/ featured liquor
Craft beer demo
Cooking demos by top chefs with samples
NJ Bacon Fest Mug
Bacon Bites Bacon Cookbook
NJ Bacon Fest T shirt
Exclusive VIP Zone Surprises!! We just keep adding more!

VIP Pass Reservations: 609-296-8868 or brookes@tuckertonseaport.org

Festival Highlights:
Mechanical Pig (Just like a mechanical bull but so much cooler!)
Mini Pig Races on Saturday
Live Music
Craft Beer
Gourmet Food Trucks & Restaurants serving up bacon’s best
Bacon Eating Competition on Sunday

Special thanks to our Sponsors:
The Law Office of William Wright https://www.facebook.com/njlegaladvice/
The Law Office of David Wright www.dtwlawnj.com
The Davis Family Agency Farmers Ins.https://www.facebook.com/DavisFamilyAgencyFarmersInsurance/?ref=ts&fref=ts
Bespoke Bacon