Toms River

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For the community named Toms River, see Toms River, New Jersey

The Toms River, formerly Tom's River, in central New Jersey in the United States, is an estuary approximately 19 mi (31 km) long located in the quickly growing coastal community of Toms River.

It rises in the Pine Barrens in northern Ocean County and flows southeast and east, fed by several branches, in a meandering course through wetland area and empties into Barnegat Bay, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. The lower 5 mi (8 km) of the river is a broad tidal estuary navigable within the community of Toms River. The lowest reaches of the river provide convenient locations for marinas and yacht clubs and excellent points from which to go fishing and crabbing.

In the 1960s, the lower river was found to have been polluted for many years from the open discharge of waste from a Ciba Geigy dye manufacturing plant. Recent public-private coalitions to restore the river and to purchase and preserve the wetland areas near its source in the Pinelands have resulted in an increase in water quality.

The Toms River was known as Goose Creek until it was renamed in the early 18th century either for English captain William Toms, farmer and ferryman Thomas Luker, or a Native American named Tom. The settlement that was founded in 1712 along the river subsequently took the name as well.