We are residents, homeowners, business owners, fishermen and visitors of the New Jersey coastal communities with one goal, stop the development of offshore wind energy off the coast of New Jersey. We do not support the speed at which development is moving without comprehensive research evaluating the true effects on our environment, economy, tourism, fisheries, wildlife and coastal communities.

• Protect Our Coast NJ does NOT support large scale offshore wind!

• Protect Our Coast NJ does NOT support offshore drilling!

• Protect Our Coast NJ does NOT support the industrialization of the oceans!

Protect Our Coast NJ is focused on three goals…

Join Us Today & Help Support The Fight! Our ocean, sea life, birds are all counting on us! It’s up to us to raise awareness and Protect Our Coast.

Protect Our Coast New Jersey is a 501 (c)(3) designated charitable nonprofit organization that is dedicated to protecting our oceans, our shores, and preserving the views and small businesses that have made the NJ shore a premier vacation destination for over a century. POCNJ is opposed to any and all industrial exploitation of the coastal and marine ecosystem - including, but not limited to, oil and gas exploration and drilling, mining and offshore wind development. Your tax deductible contributions go towards protecting our coast from industrial destruction so that wildlife may thrive and families may enjoy this special place for generations to come.

Protect Our Coast NJ is an independent, non-partisan, all volunteer (no paid staff) citizen activist group based in New Jersey. The members of the board are…

Robin Shaffer, President

Shaffer became involved in the offshore wind fight in 2021, after learning about the myriad threats to the environment, small businesses, the commercial fishing industry and the unique cultural treasure that is our Jersey Shore. He is a retired school administrator and former Ocean City (NJ) board member and remains involved in the field, conducting volunteer accreditation visits for the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Shaffer helped to plan several environmental expos and led teams of educators on field experiences in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that focused on sustainability and environmental stewardship. In 2011, he was selected for a Fulbright Japan fellowship that conducted an in depth study of Japanese schools’ approaches to education for sustainable development. Following Shaffer’s retirement from education, he went on to work as chief of the US Narcotics and Law Enforcement program in Kazakhstan, and as a counterterrorism and intelligence analyst for the State Department and Department of Defense. He has two children and makes his home in Ocean City.

Douglas Crawford, Secretary

Crawford's family lines have had a presence in Ocean City going back three generations. He lived on the island in grade school years in the early 1970s and returned after a lifetime away in 2021. In 2022, after settling in, all was right with the world.  He had returned to the place he loved since childhood, again breathing the fresh ocean air every day and enjoying bike rides to the beach to see that gorgeous ocean view that residents have known
and loved for centuries. It all crashed when confronted with the shocking plans for offshore wind.

After looking into the situation it was clear that these plans were an existential threat to the Ocean City and the NJ coast, the health of the ocean and all that lived in it near the shoreline.

Today, being retired from software engineering and semiconductor marketing, Crawford is now a vocal critic of the offshore wind plans for NJ and other coastal areas of the USA. He brings experience from business and engineering to bear in analysis of the technical and practical issues of offshore wind and formulating strategies to impede and stop the installation by making clear its destructive reality, and pointing to better potential alternatives.

Greg Cudnik, Treasurer

Long Beach Island native, Captain Greg Cudnik is a dedicated marine conservationist and steward of the sea who is well versed and active in the fisheries and offshore wind developments. For his expertise, Greg was appointed in 2021 by the state to the NJDEP Marine Fisheries Council as an advisor on the Offshore Wind Advisory Committee. After many years in the offshore wind fight, in 2024 Greg stepped up to proudly serve as the treasurer of POCNJ. He is committed to safeguarding our coastline and ecosystems from the threats of industrial offshore wind energy developments.

“I’m tirelessly fighting to ensure future generations experience and enjoy the diverse coastal and pelagic fisheries we have. Industrial offshore wind threatens it and so much more. It’s not green. It’s not clean. This is not a solution to anytime they claim to fix. Developing over a million acres of vital marine ecosystem to build a steel forest of turbines adds major problems. This is a fast tracked political agenda that is making investors a lot of money. The ocean deserves better! We all deserve better!”

Jamie Steiert, Trustee

Jamie Steiert is the newest member of the board and is ready to win against this green new scam. She is grateful to work with so many incredible volunteers and is in awe of the people she has met through the movement that she now calls friends. She grew up in North Jersey and has lived in multiple states around the country before finally coming home to New Jersey. She developed a strong connection to the ocean while spending her summers in Cape May and was completely horrified when she learned about the plans to industrialize our oceans, so she decided to dedicate herself to the cause and is ready to fight salty! Jamie brings a strong background in Human Resource Management and operations to the effort and enjoys connecting with people and developing relationships. When she isn't fighting offshore wind, she enjoys spending time with her family, working in her pollinator garden and of course going to the beach. 

Meghan Lapp, Trustee

Meghan Lapp is the Fisheries Liaison for Seafreeze, a commercial fishing company based in Rhode Island. She is the Chair of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Herring Advisory Panel and Member of the New England Fishery Management Council’s Habitat Advisory Panel, Member of the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Mackerel/Squid/Butterfish Advisory Panel, Ecosystems and Ocean Planning Advisory Panel, and River Herring and Shad Advisory Panel, and the Chair of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Menhaden Advisory Panel.

She engages with both fisheries regulatory and fisheries science bodies, as well as participates collaborative fisheries research. She has testified in Congressional hearings and field hearings on ocean policy and offshore wind related issues and engages with both federal and state legislatures and administrative agencies. She is a Board Member of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, the NYSERDA Fisheries Technical Working Group on offshore wind, and Advisory Council member for the New England Legal Foundation, member of NOAA’s Hudson Canyon Sanctuary Advisory Council, former member of the Rhode Island CRMC Fisherman’s Advisory Board on offshore wind, and was the only non-legislative member of the 2019 Rhode Island House Special Legislative Study Commission to Study the Effects of Wind Turbines on Marine Life. Meghan holds a Masters in Legal Science from Queens University, Belfast.

Bonnie Brady, Trustee

Brady is the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, (LICFA), a position she has held since 2001. LICFA represents commercial fishermen of all gear types on Long Island, where 99 percent of all New York wild-caught seafood is landed. On the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management council, Brady serves on the Ecosystem and Ocean Planning, Communications, and Summer Flounder, Black Sea Bass and Scup fishery advisory panels, and as a member of the Small Mesh Multi-species, Northeast Multi-species, and Monkfish fisheries advisory panels for the New England Fishery Management Council. She has testified at multiple field and Congressional hearings on everything from National Ocean Policy to Waterways Access, Offshore Wind and the Magnuson-Stevens Act Reauthorization. She is also a board member of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (Rodafisheries.org), the NYSERDA Fisheries-Technical Working Group on offshore wind, and NYSERDA’s State of the Science Planning Committee.  She was also chosen as one of three to share National Fisherman’s Highliner of the Year award in 2020.

Prior to becoming the executive director, Brady was a reporter for the East Hampton Star, volunteered as a Paramedic and EMT in Montauk for 20+ years, was a Peace Corps health volunteer in Cameroon, and a hill staffer in Washington, DC. She has a Journalism degree from the University of South Carolina, and became involved with fisheries management issues after attending a fisheries meeting in place of her husband, a commercial trawler fisherman. Since becoming executive director, Brady has been interviewed and quoted in dozens of publications, both here in the US and abroad, including the New York Times, Washington Post, National Review, and Aftenbladet Stavenger. LICFA was also a key organizer of several rallies in Washington D.C. to protest the inequities of US fisheries management toward all fishermen, commercial charter, and recreational, and federal abuses of power. Brady lives in Montauk, NY, with her husband, and two daughters.

Todd Eachus, Trustee

Todd Eachus first came to Ocean City in 1963 and has spent his entire life spending time at his family home there. AN avid boater and offshore fishermen, Todd cherishes the marine environment and understands the devastating impact Offshore Wind will have on our environment, marine fisheries and overall quality of life at the Jersey shore.

Eachus spent ten years flying in 3-3 Viking aircraft in the US Navy, achieving over 2,000 flight hours and 450 carrier landings. He participated in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. After the Navy, Todd served as Communications Director in the US House of Representatives. He has spent more than 25 years in the telecommunications policy space and is currently President of the Broadband Communications Association of Pennsylvania, where he manages the organization that is the leading advocate on broadband policy.

Eachus holds a BA in Political Communication from The George Washington University and is a graduate of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. He served on the Marple Newtown School Board for eight years (2 years as President), is on the Board of Directors of the Spanish American Civic Association in Lancaster, The Pennsylvania Press Club, the Pennsylvania 911 Commission, chairs the technical subcommittee of the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority and is the Commodore of the Ocean City Marlin and Tuna Club in New Jersey. Eachus splits his time between his homes in Newtown Square and Ocean City.

Important info about Protect Our Coast NJ

To date, most all support in the form of monetary donation has come from individuals in the common $25, 50, 100, 500, 1000 denominations. Every dollar raised by Protect Our Coast NJ is collected, accounted for and held for Protect Our Coast NJ’s actionable needs. Despite what some environmental journalists claim in order to to disparage our name, Protect Our Coast NJ has not accepted $1 from energy companies nor pro-oil groups. These are 100% false statements that were started by pro-wind journalist in an attempt to shed a false light on our group. Many of these journalists can’t face the facts that most of their ENGO’s have taken large donations from offshore wind developers, many of which are multination energy companies who are big oil. It never made sense but they continue to run with the false information.