Metedeconk River - Interactions With Ocean Waters

Interactions With Ocean Waters

The river is of the floodplain type and is tidal, being indirectly connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Barnegat Bay and the Manasquan River. The Metedeconk's main oceanic interactions are through the Manasquan, via the Point Pleasant Canal. In fact, before the canal was opened in 1926, the Metedeconk and the upper part of the Barnegat Bay were mainly fresh water environments and non-tidal. Today, due to ocean tides, the waters of the Bay and the Manasquan are both inlets and outlets of the Metedeconk.

Since the canal, the waters of the lower Metedeconk have been brackish to salty and the ecology of the area has changed considerably. A visual indication of the river's connection to the ocean is the cream to brown colored foam that sometimes collects where the Metedeconk's waves beat the sandy shores or manmade bulkheads. This foam consists of the microscopic organic material that naturally builds up in the presence of aquatic life; the process of filtering organics from water through wave-like action has been mechanized in most aquariums and is known there as foam fractionating.

As of October 29, 2012, due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy hitting New Jersey, an inlet opened between Barnegat Bay and the Atlantic Ocean at the river's east end, the storm having obliterated the dunes, roads, and houses that once blocked off the river from the ocean. Thus the Metedeconk technically opens to the Atlantic Ocean at the base of the Route 528 bridge, whose east end was washed away by the storm, until repairs can be attempted to the peninsula and the bridge.