Horseshoe Island

The area that comprises both Little Egg and Brigantine Inlets in Atlantic County is one of the most dynamic ecosystems in New Jersey. It includes the only undeveloped and unmanaged inlets for over 100 miles. Little Egg Inlet intersects a critically important habitat located within the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge), managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), which also holds a National Wilderness Area. 

The western side of this inlet is adjacent to the NJDEP Fish and Wildlife’s (NJFW) Great Bay Boulevard Wildlife Management Area, and the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve overlays this area. 

The barrier islands, marshes, and intertidal shoals in the region harbor numerous plants and animals of conservation concern including all Endangered Species Act-listed coastal-dependent species native to New Jersey: seabeach amaranth, piping plover, red knot, black rail, and roseate tern as well as numerous state endangered and threatened species (including black skimmer and least tern). 

While the dynamic nature of the Inlet has moved sand in the region and constantly changes the shorelines of Holgate and Little Beach Island, year-round use by migratory and nesting shorebirds has been constant. The need for human disturbance-free habitat increases each year as beaches along the Atlantic Coast experience heavy recreational use and are managed (via beach raking, among other actions) in a way that removes natural features and the food resources that birds require to survive.

 Aerial photograph of Horseshoe Island in June 2021,
looking northwest towards Little Beach Island

But sometimes the shifting sand creates rather than destroys an area. Over the last five years, sand that appears to have collected as a result of the natural southward longshore drift along Long Island Beach has been “coming and going” to form shoals just offshore of the Refuge’s Little Beach Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Natural processes have re-formed the site multiple times; however, in spring 2018, an emergent swash platform shoal formed and remained intact through all tide cycles. 

This new Horseshoe Island represents the furthest north Royal Tern colony in the Western Hemisphere. The island, which when it was formed was shaped like a horseshoe, is now incredibly important for many bird species

Aerial images and surveys by Stockton University Coastal Research Center suggest there was no nesting in 2018 or 2019, although migratory birds likely utilized the site for foraging and roosting. Nesting may have occurred in 2020, but the site was not surveyed by biologists to confirm that (due to the global COVID-19 pandemic). In May 2021, biologists confirmed that shorebirds and waterbirds were using the site for breeding activities. For the remainder of that season, staff from the NJFW’s Endangered and Nongame Species Program and the Refuge monitored the site each week until all nesting was complete in mid-September

More Information

dep.nj.gov/njfw/conservation/horseshoe-island

www.fws.gov (pdf)