Beachcombing guides display seashells and other marine life while giving a presentation during the tours.
For more than 30 years, Sea Isle City has been teaching children about the Jersey Shore’s diverse ecosystem and marine life by hosting family-friendly beachcombing tours that combine fun with education.
Sue Williamson, beachcombing director for the city’s Environmental Commission, said that the summer of 2024 proved to be a banner year for the tours.
A total of 1,543 beachcombers showed up for the summer season, Williamson said while giving a year-end report on the tours during the Dec. 10 City Council meeting.
Williamson wasn’t sure whether that number was a record, but it did include an increase in the average turnout on both days of the week that the tours are held.
Free to the public, the tours are held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays at the 29th Street beach and on Thursdays at the same time at the Townsends Inlet Waterfront Park at 94th Street.
For 2024, an average of 91 people per week went beachcombing at 94th Street, an increase from 83 in 2023.
The growth was even more significant for the tours at 29th Street, which averaged 71 beachcombers per week this year compared to 51 in 2023, Williamson said.
One key factor in the tours’ growing popularity this past summer was Sea Isle’s beach replenishment project. The beaches were widened with more than 900,000 cubic yards of new sand, giving everyone more room to spread out.
“First of all, it’s nice to have big beaches this year,” Williamson told the Council members.
Beachcombing director Sue Williamson, at right, is joined by Kathy Callahan during one of Sea Isle's summer tours in 2023.Throughout the summer, only one beachcombing tour on a Thursday was rained out. There was a low turnout for beachcombing on the Fourth of July because all of the parking spaces were filled at Townsends Inlet Waterfront Park at 94th Street by the holiday crowds, Williamson explained.
“We were low this year on Fourth of July at Townsends Inlet because there was not a single parking spot to be had. That lot was full with overnight parkers for the Fourth of July holiday. I was going to ask if it’s possible to have a ‘No Overnight Parking’ sign put up in that parking lot. It’s a problem on holidays, obviously,” Williamson said to Council.
Sea Isle’s Environmental Commission has been hosting the beachcombing tours since 1988.
Beachcombers learn all about seashells, marine life, the ocean, the bays, the beaches and more from the guides, who are members of the Environmental Commission.
The tours include shell-hunting excursions that allow children to dig in the sand like modern-day pirates searching for buried treasure.
To illustrate their remarks, the tour guides use an assortment of shells, crabs, fake turtles and other sea life spread out on a towel on the sand.
Although the beachcombing tours have been held for 36 years, there are still people in town who don’t know they exist, despite signage and other ways by the city to promote the tours, Williamson said.
“We appreciate all of the signage that goes out each year in getting the word out to have people come and do the beachcombing tours. Every year, we still have to hear from people who have lived here forever and say, ‘I never knew this program existed.’ So, we’re still trying to reach out, and we thank those who are supporting it,” she said.
Children pass around some seashells that are part of the hands-on experience during beachcombing tours.
