Jacques Cousteau Reserve, New Jersey

Volunteer Program

Our volunteers and docents are team members who play an integral part in supporting our staff in perpetrating the goals of the Jacques Cousteau Reserve. The volunteers are given the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities and events, exposing them to the needs of the Jacques Cousteau and the Jacques Cousteau Coastal Education Center. This exposure is geared towards the volunteers becoming interpretative docents. We currently have docents supporting us at the Jacques Cousteau Reserve - Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) on the Long-term Ecosystem Observatory (LEO-15) project which equipped with various sensors can continuously sample and sense the marine environment, making the ocean as accessible as any research laboratory on land.

The docents on the Leo-15 project operate the profiling system 24 hours, 7 days per week throughout the summer, taking one profile every 30 minutes. At the Life on the Edge Exhibits there are currently two Interpretive Docents. On-going programs at the Jacques Cousteau Reserve Coastal Education Center are in office support, i.e., computer, data entry and a librarian doing cataloging, scanning and labeling. Recognizing the contributions of their support a yearly Recognition Awards Dinner is held with the Volunteer of the Year award, certificates and door prizes given out.