Ready Your Cameras for Thursday's King Tide

Thursday brings one of the highest tides of the year to the eastern seaboard, and a local conservation group is asking residents to join a grassroots effort to document the phenomenon to help them get a glimpse of what rising sea levels could mean for New Jersey’s coastline.

King tides occur twice a year when the sun and moon are in line with the earth, resulting in extra gravitational pull on ocean waters and causing tides that are significantly higher than average.

The Barnegat Bay Partnership, a Toms River-based bay conservation group, is joining other estuary protection groups around the world in calling on communities to take photographs comparing this year’s fall king tide to normal area high tides.

According to the BBP, scientific projections indicate that due to rising sea levels, king tide levels could be the new normal for high tides around the world within a few decades – perhaps as early as 2030.

Experts say that means the phenomenon could offer a preview of what the world’s coasts might look like in years to come.

Karen Walzer, public outreach coordinator for the Barnegat Bay Project, said the idea to document king tides originally started in communities in Australia, where they bring more drastic changes in sea levels.

“Here, it’s not as dramatic, but it’s definitely noticeable,” she said, “and the purpose behind it is to try to get some documentation by photos for planners, so they can see the areas that are vulnerable to flooding now, and also see what our normal tides might look like.”

At Barnegat inlet, Thursday's high tide is expected to crest at just over 3 feet – about a foot higher than the high tide just a week before.

Residents of bayfront communities are asked to join in the project by heading to the water Thursday and taking a photo of Barnegat Bay where the water level is clearly visible, and then following up with a photo of a normal high tide in the same place, taken about a week later.

For local tide times – which differ in the back bays than on ocean beaches – check out this website.

“Everyone knows the spots that are prone to get flooded in their own communities,” Walzer said, and those areas are good ones to photograph. Ideally, she said, include structures, like bulkheads or bridge supports, so the differences are measurable.

For both photos, note the following:

• Record the date and time the photo was taken.
• Describe the geographic location (use your camera's GPS feature, if it has one).  
• Specify whether the photo was taken during an average tide or the king tide.
• Note the photo orientation (which direction the camera was facing).

Then, submit your photos to the BBP’s  group Flickr page with the information above, and use Flickr’s map feature to mark the location.

If you’d rather not use Flickr, you can email your photos to Karen Walzer (kwalzer@ocean.edu). Be sure to submit all entries by the deadline of Monday, Nov. 7.

BBP members will judge the entries and offer prizes for the best photos. The grand prize is a pontoon boat tour of the bay in the spring with 10 to 15 guests of the winner’s choice. Runners up will receive BBP gift bags. For official rules and details, visit the contest homepage.