cleanest jersey shore beaches (Atlantic City, Manasquan: upkeep, moving, pollution)

[pbergen]

just wondering which specific beaches have the most consistently clean sand and water in your opinion.

i know there are sites out there that rate the water quality at nj beaches on a weekly basis, but it's hard to come to any definitive conclusions about the overall level of cleanliness at these spots, as the data for a particular beach can and does fluctuate sharply from week to week. there are a host of factors which can elevate the bacterial count in the ocean, including recent rainfall in the area. also, these sites don't discuss the general upkeep of the beaches' sand, restrooms, and other amenities.

i've always been under the impression that the further south you go, the cleaner the beaches tend to be, although certain shore towns with busy boardwalk areas seem to be dirty no matter what, due to the higher foot traffic (e.g. atlantic city). i've also felt that beaches that don't allow food, drinks, coolers, or bbq grills on the beach are cleaner, although it's unclear to me whether the sand and water quality per se are actually any better than a beach that allows these things.

looking at several weeks' worth of data on njbeaches.org, it seems that bacterial counts are generally a little bit lower in the southern shore towns (south of LBI) while the individual beaches with the highest bacterial counts tended to be northern shore towns. but again, i haven't looked at enough data to figure out if this is just a week-to-week thing or a long-term trend.

so what do you guys think?

[pbergen]

for what it's worth, i once discussed this very topic with someone from south jersey, and he claimed that ocean city had the best sand and water along the entire shore. i asked him how he knew this and he said something vague about the currents moving in such a way that pollution was either directed away from that town, or cleaner water directed toward it. i'm kind of skeptical about his claims because he didn't really have any facts to back it up. not to mention, ocean city is such a busy, heavily trafficked area, so i would've assumed that its sand and water would be less clean than a more remote spot such as strathmere. the guy also claimed that the sand and water were cleaner than in ocean city than at cape may due to those same currents, and that cape may received some of the pollution from delaware bay.

also, i know that a lot of jersey shore towns have their sand replenished every year by the army corps of engineers, so i wonder if there's any difference in sand quality between the various spots up and down the coast. i will say that i've never liked sandy hook because the sand and water seemed less clean than spots further south, although i'm not sure if this is actually true.

[pbergen]

just noticed a typo in my post directly above:

"the sand and water were cleaner than in ocean city than at cape may due to those same currents"

should actually say

"the sand and water were cleaner in ocean city than at cape may due to those same currents"

[JERSEY MAN]

The further you get from the New York Harbor the cleaner and better quality water exists. We were at Atlantic City today and the water was a nice greenish,bluish color with many dolphins playing right off the beach.

[Giantone]

Belmar,Spring Lake ,SeaGirt and Manasquan are all very nice.

[TriniLiciousSs]

I think manasquan is probably the best

[billb7581]

Sea Isle City has the nice soft sand.

[E-TOWN-R.I.P.]

Wildwoood is the best.

[Sassygirl18]

Island Beach State Park has the most beautiful and pristine beach in all of NJ.

[billb7581]

Originally Posted by E-TOWN-R.I.P.

Wildwoood is the best.

If you don't mind walking the 1/2 mile to the Ocean.