About The Estuary

The Hudson-Raritan Estuary mark's the watery end of New York and New Jersey's largest waterways - including the Hudson, Hackensack, Passaic, and Raritan rivers.

The Estuary is a living web of uplands, biologically rich fresh and saltwater wetlands, beaches, straits and broad bays. It is home to more than 150 species of fish and shellfish, 330 bird species, and 15 million people.

It feeds vast schools of migrating shad and herring, flocks of songbirds and raptors. It nourishes urban citizens who seek recreation and rejuvenation in nature. It is also the world's most urban harbor — a metropolitan mosaic of shimmering glass towers, looping superhighways, and grimy refineries. It's a region teeming with wildlife, in need of ecological repair.

The Estuary — where freshwater streams mix with salty tides — cuts deeply into the U.S. Northeast coast, a 20-mile indent with 650 miles of shore. At the upper cusp is the western tip of Long Island. The Estuary swings counterclockwise from there and sweeps past New York City to New Jersey's urban coast where the Hudson, Hackensack, Passaic, Rahway and Raritan meet the Bay. At the southern cusp is the needle-thin peninsula of Sandy Hook.