Researchers raise red flag as important island off US coast vanishes into sea: 'All this open water ... was once grassy'

A once-grassy salt marsh along the Jersey Shore is being inundated by rising seas, transforming it into mudflats and open water.

What's happening?

Just off the coast of Stone Harbor in southern New Jersey lies Scotch Bonnet Island, a compact marsh island in Cape May County. One marine-geologist-turned-nonprofit-leader has been charting the struggles there as rising sea levels encroach. 

"These open water areas used to be marsh," Lenore Tedesco, executive director of The Wetlands Institute, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, pointing from her office window. "It's marsh that converted to mudflats and open water. All this open water you see was once grassy."

Tedesco has seen firsthand the impacts of sea level rise on the island, an important habitat for "shore birds and other wildlife," according to the Inquirer. 

"The increasing frequency of flooding is causing nesting failures and declines in bird populations," she continued.

In addition to the burning of fossil fuels — which traps heat in the atmosphere and melts glaciers, causing sea level rise and flooding — other human activities seem to have further amplified the problem. The Inquirer noted in its late-May report that "the area's history of dikes from salt hay farms has altered water flow, exacerbating the issue."

Why are rising sea levels around the island concerning?

According to the nonprofit Save Coastal Wildlife, New Jersey's sea levels have risen more than twice the global average — approximately 1.4 feet over the last century. There are projections of a likely rise of 2.3 to 6.3 feet there by the end of this century. Recurring tidal flooding is expected to become more frequent and widespread with these projected increases.

Losing marshlands can mean losing both fragile ecosystems and important buffers against storm surges along at-risk coastlines. The overheating of our planet, driven by heat-trapping pollution, is like "steroids for weather." A Climate Central study revealed that human-caused climate change supercharged every 2024 Atlantic hurricane, increasing wind speeds for all 11 storms.

As Earth's increasing temperatures melt glaciers and ice sheets, the resulting rise in sea levels means flooding and storm surges can penetrate further inland too, delivering more extensive damage and danger.

What's being done about the impacts of rising seas?

On Scotch Bonnet Island, a project to use dredged sediments to build out tidal marshes kicked off in October 2024 as a partnership between The Wetlands Institute, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. 

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Tedesco has written of the initiative at the Institute's website, "The benefits of this project extend beyond Scotch Bonnet Island. Lessons and know-how are already informing other projects and contributing to scaling-up efforts to help build resilience into our marshes."

Similar efforts to enhance disappearing coasts are underway elsewhere too. In the Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, scientists have experimented with mitigating the problem by using methods like artificial "smart reefs." 

And officials in Massachusetts are committed to building out resilient infrastructure, including with ecological restoration, to address increasing flood threats — even while federal funding has been slashed.

Transitioning from dirty energy sources to clean, renewable options can help curb the harmful pollution that keeps sending temperatures and sea levels higher. Getting informed about critical climate issues like sea level rise in conversation with family and friends can help improve awareness about these hazards to our health and well-being. It can even inspire collective, local action to bring back vanishing shores in our communities and beyond.

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