The Barnegat Peninsula, also known as the Island Beach Peninsula or Barnegat Bay Island and colloquially as "the barrier island", is a 20-mile (32 km) long, narrow barrier peninsula located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, that divides the Barnegat Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a vacation destination and summer colony area and is heavily dependent on tourism, real estate and fishing.
Notable communities on the peninsula include Point Pleasant Beach, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Lavallette, Toms River sections of Ortley Beach and Normandy Beach, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, Brick Township (Beaches I, II, and III), and Berkeley Township. The southern 10 miles (16 km) of the barrier island are preserved in their natural state as Island Beach State Park, New Jersey's longest stretch of undeveloped coastline.[1]
- ^ Zarine, Ali; Singh, Andrew; Khandaker, Nazrul I.; Schleifer, Stanley; And Kaur, Manpreet. "Sedimentology of Island Beach State Park", 2009 Portland GSA Annual Meeting, Geological Society of America. Accessed September 23, 2013. "Island Beach State Park, at almost 10 miles in length, is the largest undeveloped stretch of barrier islands on the New Jersey coast, and one of the largest in the United States."