Ocean Water

"Diiizzzgusting," Melissa Dill said, crinkling up her nose, under '50s- style pastel sunglasses, at the thought of swimming with syringes, tarballs or other assorted flotsam and jetsam in the Atlantic Ocean off the New Jersey coast. The very idea upset her. Made her queasy. Grossed her out, even. But would memories of trash slicks keep the 18-year-old Trenton-area resident from venturing into the water on this fine and summery Saturday? "Nope," she said yesterday. "I'm not afraid.

A foot. That's how much sea level has risen in the Delaware Bay in the last century, measurements show. Two factors are driving the rise: The biggest reason is that the volume of the ocean is increasing - an event scientists say is related to warming water, caused by a warming planet, brought on in turn by higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The other factor is that the land is sinking. About 20,000 years ago, when glaciers extended roughly to the top of New Jersey, the land to the south was pushed up. Now it's subsiding again.

The quality of the ocean water off New Jersey has gained notoriety over the years: Syringes drifted ashore, tar balls clung to the soles of bare feet, and fecal matter at times prompted beach closings. But today, the state boasts clearer waters. Even the dolphins have noticed. The water off the Jersey Shore is the cleanest and clearest it has been in years, officials and environmental advocates said yesterday in praising the state's mandatory ocean testing and monitoring. Cleaner waters are bringing an abundance of sea life to the coastline, including more schools of dolphins than were seen in past years, according to Atlantic City Beach Patrol Chief Robert Levy and other officials.

Stepping out of a large, noisy EPA helicopter in an olive-drab flight jumpsuit, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D., N.J.) yesterday looked ready to take on the fight for the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency's $7.2 billion budget. And he told a small crowd that had been lured away from the sand and sun that he would do just that. Lautenberg was a passenger in one of the helicopters that make routine stops along the coastline five times a week to test ocean water for the presence of fecal coliform and other contaminants.

Surf's up! Fecal matter down! The ocean water off Ocean County, N.J., is safe, state officials declared yesterday. In fact, a 25-foot stretch of shoreline where swimming was banned earlier this week was never really dangerous - just a bit messy, they said. A lot of foul, oily junk washed up on some beaches Wednesday and Thursday, but the quality of the water was always high enough to allow swimming, said George Klenk, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

In the next week or so, if nature takes its expected course, the ocean water will warm up a few degrees, mackerel will make their first appearance of the year, and Capt. Neil Robbins will be back in the wheelhouse of his beautiful mahogany-and-pine 70-footer, the Capt. Robbins. In other places, the start of spring is marked by the appearance of box scores or crocuses or returning wrens. On board the Capt. Robbins, spring begins when customers start reeling in silver-bellied mackerel.

Ever since my daughter moved away from home to pursue her career, we've tried to think of ways to remain close and continue to bond. I've found the perfect solution. Every year we meet at a different place for a mother-daughter getaway. We always have fabulous times together. But this year, our vacation in Aruba exceeded all expectations. I've reached a point in my life where I realize that now is the time to fulfill my dreams. Maybe it's a midlife crisis, or maybe it's because I recently lost my parents, but I'm ready for new adventures.

Concerned that many areas of the Atlantic Ocean off New Jersey may be polluted, a group of 500 New Jersey doctors is asking the state to conduct a comprehensive study to determine how many people have become ill after swimming in coastal waters. "We are seriously concerned about the safety of the water," Dr. Robert Dennis, a Neptune orthopedic surgeon who co-founded the group Save Our Shores, said Wednesday. "The volume of wastes being dumped in the ocean is astronomical and has reached the saturation point.

Sharks or syringes, forget about it. That would totally ruin a beach vacation.   But people are more placid about poo, apparently. Although a raw-sewage spill prompted authorities to ban swimming at three of the busiest beaches in Ocean City, N.J., earlier this week, sunbathers crowded back into the ocean Tuesday afternoon, after Cape May County health officials declared the currents safe. "Considering that Ocean City is seven miles long, I think it's a little bit overblown," said John Millon, 56, of Havertown, who spent Tuesday on the beach at Third Street.

Early last Wednesday morning, three environmental scientists in olive-green flight suits strapped themselves into a reconditioned combat helicopter and flew low along the New Jersey shore - so low that the navigator had to keep an eye peeled for kites. About 50 yards off a boulder-strewn beach at Cape May Point, the chopper wheeled to a stop and hovered a few feet above the surf. Joe Hudek, 38, a marine biologist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lowered a long brass tube through a floor hatch, pulled it back up brimming with sea water and emptied it into a sterilized plastic bottle.

A foot. That's how much sea level has risen in the Delaware Bay in the last century, measurements show. Two factors are driving the rise: The biggest reason is that the volume of the ocean is increasing - an event scientists say is related to warming water, caused by a warming planet, brought on in turn by higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The other factor is that the land is sinking. About 20,000 years ago, when glaciers extended roughly to the top of New Jersey, the land to the south was pushed up. Now it's subsiding again.

Sharks or syringes, forget about it. That would totally ruin a beach vacation.   But people are more placid about poo, apparently. Although a raw-sewage spill prompted authorities to ban swimming at three of the busiest beaches in Ocean City, N.J., earlier this week, sunbathers crowded back into the ocean Tuesday afternoon, after Cape May County health officials declared the currents safe. "Considering that Ocean City is seven miles long, I think it's a little bit overblown," said John Millon, 56, of Havertown, who spent Tuesday on the beach at Third Street.

The 2004 hurricane season, already one of the costliest on record, didn't arrive so much as erupt. It went from dead quiet - not a single hurricane formed until Alex, on Aug. 3 ? to a full-blown assault on the central nervous system of Florida, which is recovering from a spiraling five-day nightmare named Frances and anxiously watching Ivan, a major hurricane that could be destined for the Keys. "It's nerve-racking," said Gilda Moreno, chief psychiatrist at Miami Children's Hospital, who endured three weeks without power after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992.

Ever since my daughter moved away from home to pursue her career, we've tried to think of ways to remain close and continue to bond. I've found the perfect solution. Every year we meet at a different place for a mother-daughter getaway. We always have fabulous times together. But this year, our vacation in Aruba exceeded all expectations. I've reached a point in my life where I realize that now is the time to fulfill my dreams. Maybe it's a midlife crisis, or maybe it's because I recently lost my parents, but I'm ready for new adventures.

Routed Floridians and fleeing Carolinians no doubt have other words for it, but meteorologically, Hurricane Floyd is "the perfect storm. " An ideal alignment of conditions from the ocean surface to 50,000 feet into the atmosphere allowed Floyd to grow into one of the larger such storms on record, said James Eberwine, a marine-forecasting specialist with the National Weather Service. "This is the perfect storm when you talk of hurricanes," he said. The storm was expected to make landfall probably in North Carolina by early tomorrow, said Jeremy Pennington, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

What a difference 20 years makes! When my wife, Valerie, and I first visited the idyllic island of Bermuda as a June honeymoon couple, the skies were gray and filled with rain. The ocean water was too cold to swim in. We made the most of it, puttering around the island on our motor scooter, getting drenched all the while. And, although we had a ball visiting the historic forts, picturesque towns and fancy shops, we had to wonder why Bermuda was so popular. Where was the crystal-clear water, the gentle ocean breezes - and the famous pink sand?

The quality of the ocean water off New Jersey has gained notoriety over the years: Syringes drifted ashore, tar balls clung to the soles of bare feet, and fecal matter at times prompted beach closings. But today, the state boasts clearer waters. Even the dolphins have noticed. The water off the Jersey Shore is the cleanest and clearest it has been in years, officials and environmental advocates said yesterday in praising the state's mandatory ocean testing and monitoring. Cleaner waters are bringing an abundance of sea life to the coastline, including more schools of dolphins than were seen in past years, according to Atlantic City Beach Patrol Chief Robert Levy and other officials.

I love the beach. Any beach. Anywhere. Any time of day. And not necessarily with any advance planning. So all year 'round, I keep in the trunk of my car a towel, a bathing suit and, for that little touch of truly gracious living, a nice beach chair. A beach chair might not seem like much to you, but we traveled real light on trips downtheshore when I was a kid. Packing for a day at the Shore consisted of filling a couple of bags with clothes to change into after swimming, then gathering the miles of towels my mother kept for this event and no other.

Ocean City, stung by a 38-21 loss to Mainland last week, took out its disappointment on Atlantic City yesterday, rolling up 443 yards from scrimmage in a 33-6 nonleague win. Junior fullback Kevin Sinclair led the Red Raiders with 154 yards rushing and all five of their touchdowns. Strong and fast at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds, he has rushed for 405 yards and eight touchdowns in two games. Ocean City (1-1) wasted no time in taking the lead. The Raiders went 65 yards in seven plays to score on their first possession.

John Gleason looks upon his vigilant post-Labor Day routine of watching out for swimmers on the unguarded beach in front of his home as a kind of civic duty. Yesterday, armed with binoculars and a beach chair, the retired engineer moved his watch from the second-story deck of his oceanfront home on Wesley Avenue to a spot about 20 yards closer to the water's edge. Gleason wanted a closer vantage point because he was bothered by the deaths of two Pennsylvania men who drowned in the resort over the weekend in the rough surf that has been stirred up along the Jersey Shore by Hurricane Luis.