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 Find out about Jamaica Bay BioBlitz 2007! 


Gillian Stewart
and John Waldman of Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), along with the National Park Service (NPS) and Jamaica Bay Institute (JBI), organized a Bioblitz of Jamaica Bay from 3pm Friday, September 7th through 3pm Saturday, September 8th 2007. Briefly, a Bioblitz is a 24 hour event aimed at cataloguing the diversity of organisms in a particular area. This Bioblitz was part contest (racing against the 24 hour clock), part educational event, and part scientific endeavor. We hope it increased the public’s awareness of the diversity of their own “backyard,” while highlighting the need to protect sensitive ecosystems like Jamaica Bay.


Jamaica Bay is a 25,000 acre nutrient rich estuary, connected to Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean via the Rockaway Inlet. Jamaica Bay is located on the southwestern tip of Long Island, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens; and the town of Hempstead in Nassau County. The majority of the area is publicly owned by the federal government and city of New York.

Most of Jamaica Bay proper and associated uplands and barrier beach are part of the National Park System’s Gateway National Recreation Area. Gateway properties include Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Jacob Riis Park, Plumb Beach, Fort Tilden, the Breezy Point tip, and Floyd Bennett Field. Several city parks also fall within the Jamaica Bay complex, including Marine and Edgemere Parks, and numerous smaller parcels of city owned lands. Some wetland and upland areas are part of the John F. Kennedy International Airport, owned by the City of New York and operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Smaller upland areas surrounding the Bay remain in private, residential or commercial ownership.

Jamaica Bay is a regionally significant resource for fish and wildlife. Its waters, uplands, and barrier beaches also provide invaluable respite and recreational opportunities for the New York City metropolitan community. The bay is the frequent subject of research and management of its wildlife, fisheries, waters, and marshes. This site captures the myriad of management and research activities occurring in the Bay, including the latest research, descriptive information on the many Bay stakeholders, highlights on future activities, and links to other related sites.

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