Beaches on Brigantine Island are well maintained. Badges are required June through Labor Day. Other beach activities available for visitors include boating, sand-castle building, kite flying and 4-wheeling. Lifeguards are on duty during the summer months, keeping an eye on swimmers and surfers. The Brigantine Beach Waveriders offer tournaments and clinics for kids. The Beach Patrol sponsors swimming and rowing competitions and swimming clinics.
Marine Mammal Stranding Center and Sea Life Educational Center & Museum rescues marine mammals from New Jersey’s waterways and rehabilitates them. The center releases stranded animals back into the wild. In the museum, children learn the importance of the marine stranding center. At the northern end of Brigantine Island, parents and kids can view endangered birds such as the Peregrine falcon, the American bald eagle and the American black duck at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. The park offers driving maps and checklists for wildlife viewing. It is best to visit in the spring and fall. Also in northern Brigantine Island is the Sea Wall, where kids can spot dolphins frolicking in the wild.
The Brigantine Beach Historical Museum & Society displays artifacts and a collection of photographs from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kids discover the colorful history of tiny Brigantine Island that includes notorious pirates like Captain Kidd and Blackbeard. Stories of treasure abound as more than 300 shipwrecks lie along the Brigantine coast, some dating back to the 1700s. The Historical Museum is located adjacent to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center.
With a slithering cement snake bowl, the Brigantine Skate Park offers rails to grind and ramps to jump. The park on Bayshore Avenue is free. Full gear is required to skate. During the summer season, The Smile Factory on Brigantine Avenue serves up boardwalk-style games, including skee ball, basketball shots and car racing. There is also an arcade retrofit with pinball machines. Shark Park, also located Brigantine Avenue, is a magical playground area housed with a castle filled with turrets and plenty of twists.
