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Saving the Bay Should be as Easy as Playing Video Games

At the risk of exposing myself as the video game nerd I most certainly have become, I implore you all to think back to any Zelda game you may have played. For those of you who have not had the opportunity, nay privilege of playing Zelda, allow me to share the abridged plot line.

A forest boy named Link goes on a quest through the land of Hyrule, fighting monsters and what have you in order to save the beautiful Princess Zelda. It is quite similar to Mario, only the hero is neither a plumber nor Italian. In almost every Zelda game, especially the more recent ones, whenever evil takes over Hyrule, it consumes nature and the environment as well. The sun no longer shines. Instead of animals roaming the land and the skies, monsters do. Instead of fish swimming in the lake in Hyrule, there are maniacal jellyfish and octopi.

The same is happening in the Barnegat Bay, and we do not even have an evil monster to blame for it. The blame rests solely on the shoulders of mankind. Our development patterns have altered the landscape in such a way that it is now adversely affecting the ecosystem. Every road we make, every lot we pave and every house we build all provide a smooth surface for runoff water from rainfall to flow. This runoff water picks up pollutants along the way, through lawn fertilizers, gas and oil leaked from cars, garbage, pet wastes and other sources, and it eventually makes it way back into our bodies of water.

The pollutants are essentially just nutrients. In normal amounts, they are fine and will not dramatically affect the ecosystem. However, in large amounts, it provides the nutrients needed for invasive plant species, smothering the natural plant life. This change at the bottom of the chain eventually trickles up and affects the whole ecosystem. Animals that survive off of the natural plant life in the bay are now losing a main source of food.

Species that normally live within the bay and its watershed are slowly dying out. The population of many species of fish and clams has been heavily depleted over the past few decades, being replaced by an influx of nasty creatures like jellyfish and sea nettles. Aside from being icky and gross, they have a nasty habit of stinging small children. For a long period of her life, my 12-year-old sister refused to swim in any body of water other than a pool out of fear of being attacked by a rogue jellyfish. Perhaps, you do not particularly care about the clam population of the world. That is fair, but other animals are being affected as well. The bald eagle is endangered in the Barnegat Bay watershed. Any true patriot can see that helping the Barnegat Bay and the surrounding environment should be the American thing to do. Even Mr. Bush would agree that we need to bomb whatever evil is causing all of these problems – democracy depends on it.

The solution is not as simple as defeating an evil monster. It requires a change in our lifestyle and consumption habits.

First of all, we need to stop developing every piece of land in sight. According to a study done by the Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis (CRSSA) at Rutgers University, as of 2001, 30 percent of the land in the Barnegat Bay watershed had been developed – a 12 percent increase since 1972. Most of it is not even necessary. Within five miles of my house outside of Toms River, N.J., there are about five Wawa convenience stores, because heaven forbid I have to drive more than three minutes to get a candy bar. I can think of over three intersections in which three of the corners are covered by gas stations. We don’t need all of this. Organizations such as the Trust for Public Land (TPL) are working to fix this by purchasing land to keep it out of the hands of developers.

Second, we actually need to clean up after ourselves. How hard is it to use an ash tray in a car as opposed to throwing the cigarette butt out onto the street? Is it really that difficult to put your plastics into the recycling? Many of the solutions are so incredibly simple that I find it hard to understand how they are ignored. I learned how to recycle in the third grade, and color me fortunate, but it is a concept that has stuck with me up through my college years.

At the end of every Zelda game, Link beats the big bad guy, gets the girl and rides off into the reignited blaze of the sun. The land is essentially reincarnated – the monsters are gone and natural life returns. To be fair, in real life it is not that simple. There are no cheat codes we can look up on the internet. However, it is not too late to start reversing the damage that has already been done.

I will leave you with a little saying that helps me get motivated to do environmentally friendly work – Give a hoot, recycle, stop fertilizing your lawn so much, cut down on land development, pick up your trash and enjoy nature!