Tuckerton is home to one of the Jersey Shore's most distinctive attractions: the Tuckerton Seaport & Baymen's Museum. This 40-acre working maritime village preserves the heritage of Barnegat Bay's watermen—the clammers, oystermen, boat builders, and decoy carvers who shaped this region's working life.
Opened in May 2000, the Seaport includes 17 historic and recreated buildings connected by boardwalks, among them a replica of the Tucker's Island Lighthouse (the original washed away in 1927 when Tucker's Island itself disappeared into the sea). The working craftspeople here aren't performing—boat builders restore traditional Barnegat Bay sneakboxes and garveys, decoy carvers work their blocks, and the exhibits on pound fishing cover a commercial tradition that has almost entirely vanished from the shore.
Tuckerton sits at the confluence of Tuckerton Creek and the Mullica River, with access to both Great Bay and Barnegat Bay. Captain Mike's Marina runs fishing charters, boat rentals, and kayak launches into the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge—one of the better birding destinations on the mid-Atlantic coast. Blue crabbing and flounder fishing are both productive in the surrounding waters.
The ferry to Beach Haven runs seasonally from the Seaport—an hour across Barnegat Bay, with wildlife visible most of the way. It's a better way to arrive on LBI than the bridge if you're coming from the mainland side, and the crossing itself is worth doing for its own sake.
