Ocean Township is a township located on the Jersey Shore in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 8,835,
History
Ocean Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 13, 1876, from portions of both Lacey Township and Union Township (now Barnegat Township). Portions of the township were taken to create Long Beach Township (March 23, 1899) and Island Beach (June 23, 1933; dissolved in 1965 and absorbed into Berkeley Township). The township derives its name from its seaside location.
Even though Waretown constitutes only one incorporated community within Ocean Township, many people use "Waretown" to refer to all of Ocean Township. The local custom is so widespread that it surprises some new residents that the official name is Ocean Township. Non-residents have been known to confuse Ocean Township with the Ocean Township of Monmouth County. There was a petition drive in 2006 to get a name change to Township of Waretown on the ballot but it failed to obtain enough signatures. The Waretown neighborhood is home to Albert Music Hall.
The name Waretown is derived from Abraham Weair (1683–1768), who came to the area with a colony of Rogerine Baptists (Quaker Baptists) . When the colony left the area eleven years later, Weair, who had built a sawmill, stayed behind and became a prominent member of the community.
During the American Revolutionary War, British ships sailed into the nearby Barnegat Inlet in an attempt to protect their New York-bound supply vessels from attacks by local privateers sailing schooners and whaleboats. Another British objective was to destroy Newlin's salt works, a local supplier of a crucial commodity to the Revolutionary army, needed for food preservation and gunpowder manufacture. A massacre of local patriots occurred in October, 1782, when Captain John Bacon, loyal to the British crown, led a surprise attack on Long Beach.
During World War II, blimps cruised along the Jersey coast looking for German U-boats. Local fishermen reported periscopes of U-boats within 20 miles of the shore. As a precaution, troops were stationed in town at the Bayview Hotel on Barnegat Bay. In 1960, the landmark structure burned to the ground, nearly 70 years after its opening in 1890.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 32.81 square miles (84.97 km<sup>2</sup>), including 21.10 square miles (54.65 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 11.70 square miles (30.31 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (35.67%).
Other unincorporated communities, localities and place names located partially or completely within the township include Brookville, Wells Mills, Pebble Beach, Barnegat Beach, Holiday Beach, Sands Point Harbor, Skippers Cove, Bay Haven and Dogtown.
The township borders the Ocean County municipalities of Barnegat Light, Barnegat Township, Berkeley Township, Lacey Township and Long Beach Township.
The township is one of 56 South Jersey municipalities that are included within the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve, a protected natural area of unique ecology covering , that has been classified as a United States Biosphere Reserve and established by Congress in 1978 as the nation's first National Reserve. All of the township is included in either the state-designated Pinelands Area or the Pinelands National Reserve, which includes portions of Burlington County, along with areas in Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties.