Today I spent some time walking the boards and beach in Asbury Park scouting some of the groins that I generally don't fish. I grew up around the Jersey shore and always referred to the rocky jetties as "jetties". However, since doing the article for Eastern Fly Fishing magazine on striper fishing in New Jersey, writer Chris Roslan pointed out the difference to me. Jetties are formations that protect inlets, groins and formations that protect beaches, in a dumbed down explanation for me to get. The purpose of jetties and groins, groynes if you are in Europe, is to "lessen the impact of erosion by reducing the rate of sediment transport along vulnerable coastlines", according to the NJ DEP. Several series of groins, like those in Deal, are called groin fields. A fairly recent method to increase the effectiveness of the groin is to "notch" or shorten it, thereby allowing some movement of sediment to pass through with the current.
The picture above shows a notched groin, and the picture below shows a tighter view of the rock "island" that is created. It is just north of Convention Hall. These notches are usually done in conjunction with beach replenishment, where sand is pumped or trucked back onto the remaining beach. There are several pros and cons to beach replenishment, depending on who you listen too, that's not for this blog post.
