Not a Fluke, But a Fluker: Cell Phone Photo Stands in Sea Girt

Sea Girt’s beach walkers, metal detector operators and seashell collectors might notice something new on their daily stroll.

Placed on the shore near the National Guard Training Center, three green and brown Fluker Posts wait for people to prop up their camera phones and take snapshots of the sunrise, the birds, and the ocean.

“We can use the photos to manage the land,” said New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs environmental specialist Bill McBride.

Developed in 2008 by Dr. Martin Fluker of Victoria University in Brisbane, Australia, the fixed points enable passers-by to take landscape photos with their own camera phones. Signage on the posts encourages people to send the photos to Fluker’s online collection point, and track changes to the local landscape over time.

McBride spotted Fluker’s idea and immediately thought of importing it to the Jersey shore.

“Sea Girt is unique as it has the recreational element… we do active land management and people go there regularly,” he said. “If you have years and years of photos, you can measure plant density and beach erosion.”

Fluker’s original design can be found all around Melbourne, in southern Australia. Photos from the older posts document the visible effects of erosion and human activity over the last half decade.

The DMAVA environmental team modified their posts to ensure each photo, taken by different types of camera phones, would capture the same angle of Sea Girt’s coastline.

“You could put a time-lapse camera there, but you have to get people involved,” said Chuck Appleby, chief of the DMAVA environmental branch. He added that aerial photos, such as Google Earth views, aren’t nearly as frequent as a user-driven concept like the Fluker post.

“People walk the beach every day,” Appleby said. “You could get just one photo a week.”

McBride hopes to use the Fluker photos to track endangered sea bird population, plant growth, and beach erosion. The team avoided setting up posts in more secluded areas, as much of the beachfront is in its natural state: prime habitat for animal species, according to Appleby.

“You need people and a reason to study. Outreach is important,” Appleby said.

“We can show that the Guard supports more here at Sea Girt,” McBride added.

And that’s no fluke.