Uncovering the hidden creatures of New Jersey

PEQUANNOCK – Tourists love a walk over the picturesque New Hope-Lambertville truss bridge, but how many know it's covered in barn spiders at night?

Also, moss and ponds statewide are home to an astonishing number of tardigrades, eight-legged microanimals. They're among the most resilient creatures on earth since they can thrive on land, in water, and even in space.

"Tardigrades are tiny, like a grain of sand," said John Andrews of Alexandria Township, who will talk about them and other creatures at "Strange Animals of New Jersey," a Monday presentation at the Pequannock Township Public Library.

Andrews, programming director of the 275-member New Jersey Astronomical Association, will give his audience an earful and an eyeful when he introduces them to stories and facts about sharks, an errant manatee who swam its way to Bayonne, monk parakeets, vultures and more, all from New Jersey's past and present.

"Strange Animals of New Jersey" is one of 13 talks he presents throughout North and Central New Jersey on topics ranging from "The Deep Sky" and "Saturn Up-Close" to "The Geology and Fossils of New Jersey." His goal is always the same — to teach the public about the natural world and provide an inspirational moment for some young person, perhaps a future scientist, in attendance.

"John has personally done hundreds of outreach programs on topics so diverse that it boggles one's imagination," said Jim Roselli, president of the NJAA, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.

"How one person can be so well versed in varied subject matters is remarkable," he added. "For all the time and energy John puts forth doing these events, when he receives a gratuity, he donates it to our organization."

Additionally, Andrews, who holds a zoology degree from Rutgers University and works as an engineer at Integrated Photonics in Hillsborough, books experts, often of national caliber, to speak monthly at the Edwin E. Aldrin Astronomical Center, the NJAA's home in Voorhees State Park.

His philosophy is: "No matter where you are, there's so much to discover."

A good way to start exploring, he advises, is to intensely look around. That's what he did in the late '70s when, fresh out of college, he was employed as a teaching assistant in the science department at what was then Somerset County College, now Raritan Valley Community College.

His schedule was flexible, allowing him, two or three times a week, to drive to Washington Valley Park in Bridgewater to catalog all the plants and animals there.

"For two years, it was so exciting. I got to see life evolve," Andrews said. "I trudged over in the winter right through the summer. I did it, just to learn."

In Pequannock, he will share his sophisticated and encyclopedic knowledge of New Jersey. The way Andrews puts it, he'll talk about "weird stuff most folks just don't know."

Shark attacks and caviar

Take, for instance, the Jersey Shore shark attacks of July 1916 when, over a period of 11 days, there were five shark attacks, including four fatalities — one in Beach Haven, one in Spring Lake and two in Matawan Creek, near Keyport, according to newspaper accounts.

"Those in Matawan Creek were really creepy because they took place in fresh water," said Andrews, who will present the details of the attacks. "There were bounties out for the sharks and there was major shark hunting in Raritan Bay as people looked for what they believed to be a great white."

It's often said, he added, that those Jersey Shore attacks were the inspiration for "Jaws," the 1975 thriller hit movie.

The uninitiated also will learn about the time southern New Jersey was world famous for its caviar, an industry that peaked in 1895, the year some two dozen wholesalers shipped 15 train cars of caviar, and smoked sturgeon, through the Pine Barrens to New York City. At the time, Andrews explained, the Delaware Bay was rich in sturgeon.

"But the Atlantic sturgeon was completely wiped out in the early 1900s," he said. "Today, there's 300 to 500 female sturgeon in Delaware Bay. You're not allowed to fish them. It's estimated that, back in the 1890s, there were 180,000 breeding sturgeon."

Andrews also will cover New Jersey's strange association with Russian caviar.

His tidbits of history include the American Acclimatization Society, centered in New York City, whose goal, he said, was to introduce to this region all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works.

In 1890, according to Scientific American, the acclimatization society released 100 starlings in Central Park. Sixty years later, the birds were found coast to coast.

Wonder of heavenly lights

People with a desire for discovery and a curiosity about their environment also can simply look up. To look at the stars is to look back in time, Andrews said, referring to the length of time it takes light to traverse vast cosmic distances.

Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth other than the sun, is four light years away, according to Cornell University's "Ask an Astronomer" forum. The light a person sees from it now left the star four years ago.

"Starlight takes so long to travel," Andrews said. "The stars we see can be gone but right now, we're seeing them as they were hundreds, thousands, or millions of years ago."

He's been fascinated by the night sky since grammar school days when his teacher brought a telescope to school and the young Andrews got his first glimpse at Saturn. It was a revelatory moment he likes to replicate all over the state.

"If a talk ends when it's dark outside, as in the fall, I always bring an 8-inch telescope," Andrews said. "Whatever the subject, be it animals or astronomy, when the talk ends, I go in the parking lot, set up the scope, and observe one or two things. I always get a group of people who are excited about that."

Once, at the Pequannock library, before a talk, he invited people outside where the space station, visible to the naked eye, passed overhead. That night, after the talk, it turned out Saturn and Uranus were close enough together that people, when peering through his telescope, could see both at the same time.

Andrews will set up his telescope outside the Pequannock library after his talk on Monday and invite whoever is interested to join him.

This broadening of horizons is exactly what library programming is about, according to Deborah Maynard, Pequannock library director.

"We offer programs to enrich people's lives," she said. "These days libraries are offering more than books and magazines."

Staff Writer Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@njpressmedia.com

Learn more

WHAT: Strange Animals of New Jersey, with John Andrews

WHEN: 7 p.m. Dec. 1

WHERE: Pequannock Township Public Library, 477 Newark Pompton Turnpike, Pompton Plains

COST: Free

INFO AND REGISTRATION: 973-835-7460

Catch one of these other upcoming programs by the New Jersey Astronomical Association (NJAA):

• WHAT: Live Webcast of Dr. James Rice, Senior Scientist at Planetary Science Institute, Geology Team Leader for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project

WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Feb. 28

WHERE: NJAA Observatory, Voorhees State Park, High Bridge

INFO: Write to www.njaa.org/contactus.html

• WHAT: The Rise and Fall of the Giant Airships, with John Andrews

WHEN: 1 p.m. March 25

WHERE: Great Horizons Program, Morris School District Community School

INFO: Write to www.njaa.org/contactus.html