For Mary Jane Dodd, Vice-President of the Shark River Cleanup Coalition, the area from the Avon inlet to the Shark River Hills back basin has been home to her and her extended family for a combined 260 years. Playing on the local beaches, being at her paternal grandparents fishing basin on the current Seaview Island, and growing up in the woods and water of Shark River Hills has created in her a bone deep commitment to the non-human life and conservation of their habitat. Mary Jane’s passion for protecting and monitoring the wildlife of the Shark River estuary and keeping their habitat safe runs deep.

She first became involved with the SRCC when she assisted the group by helping organize a protest of a proposed FEMA grant for bulkhead in Shark River Hills. Instead of the bulkhead, the town was urged to build a living shoreline, and FEMA agreed to turn the money for the bulkhead into funding a living shoreline that now grows on South Riverside Drive.

Mary Jane’s current areas of high interest are tagging and protecting horseshoe crabs, monitoring threatened bird species, documenting species for the NJDEP for use in environmental impact studies, and sharing the beauty of this place with residents so they feel invested in it too.

Mary Jane is committed to seeing this ecosystem flourish well into the future in a way that honors the Lenni Lenape indigenous tribe who called the Shark River area their summer home - Nolletquesset -and lived in balance with it all. In a time of great real estate development, she encourages everyone to be vigilant about balancing wants and needs; it is essential to make folks aware of the abundant life that shares the Shark River with us.