But in this whodunit, state officials, environmental groups and business owners debated who was killing the Barnegat Bay and what could stop the killer.

About 100 people participated in the last of three "stakeholder" meetings about the declining ecology of this waterway.

The bay and its vast watershed are home to 500,000 people in 38 towns between mile markers 53 and 92 of the Garden State Parkway. Many other rivers and bays in New Jersey are under similar development pressure. Environmentalists said as goes the Barnegat, so goes the rest of New Jersey's sensitive waterways.

Some people blamed the bay's problems on development: Fertilizer from lawns miles from the bay gets washed downstream. The excess nutrients feed algae that block sunlight, killing sea grass that provides habitat for fish and shellfish. Without the plants, the water loses even more of its oxygen, creating vast dead zones.

"The bay is dying. This is desperate, dire stuff," said Peg Sturmfels, of Jackson Township, who is a board member for the nonprofit New Jersey Environmental Federation, one of several groups that participated in the meeting. "We're going to lose the bay."

She recommended closing the nuclear plant and issuing a moratorium on new construction throughout much of Ocean County.