The Wetlands Institute and Museum is a non-profit private organization located on salt marshes of the Cape May Peninsula in southern New Jersey. Its goal is to promote appreciation of the crucial role coastal and wetland ecosystems play in the sustainability and survival of life on Earth. It was founded by Herbert Mills in the late 1960s, fulfilling his life-long dream of making a world-class education, conservation and research center at the Jersey Shore that would teach people of all ages about the wonders and beauty of the coastal environment and its significance to their daily lives.

In 1969, under Mills? leadership, the World Wildlife Fund purchased 5,000 acres of salt marsh in Middle Township. Thirty four of those acres became the location of the Wetlands Institute?s facility. The rest were held by the World Wildlife Fund until being moved to New Jersey?s Green Acres Program.

The Institute has transformed to become a leader in environmental education and coastal conservation. Today, the Wetlands Institute and Museum is backed almost entirely by funding from private companies, getting only an occasional government grant for a special project. In addition to being a massive source of flood control, and water purification, the wetlands are the ?nursery? to hundreds of species of shellfish and fish that sustain mankind.

As in previous years, the Wetlands Institute and Museum continues to participate in a huge population study of spawning Horseshoe Crabs along the New Jersey shore of Delaware Bay. It has also been participating in this project for many years, helping to develop information about the status of the world?s densest concentration of this type of crab.

The Wetlands Institute and Museum continues to collaborate with partners from the Hackensack Meadowlands Nature Center in northern New Jersey on a research of the Diamondback Terrapins. It also works with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey to conduct a study of skeletal remains collected from Bald Eagle nests scattered throughout the state.