Even in mid-January, water in the 20-foot-deep channel off Great Bay is “like a Jacuzzi for fish” compared to chilly waters of the shallows, explained Roland Hagan, a laboratory researcher at the Rutgers marine field station, who wheeled a small skiff near Little Sheepshead Creek as the students gathered samples.

Last week’s exercise was a mid-winter class in marine invertebrates, like the tiny shrimp and polychaete worms that students studied under a microscope. It was also a preview of the work their teachers — and maybe some new Rutgers graduates — will be doing this summer when scientists begin the first comprehensive survey of life in Barnegat Bay since the 1970s.

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