ASBURY PARK — Exhibits on endangered butterflies, wind power and other environmental topics were really the main attractions at Saturday's Clearwater Festival — musical acts were recruited simply to lure people past activists' tables.

That's how Ed Dlugosz explained the focus behind this annual event, now in its 31st year. He's president of the Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater, the group throwing the weekend-long festival in Sunset Park.

"We use the music to draw the people, to deliver them a message," he said.

If the music was meant to attract visitors, then Clearwater used high-quality bait.

The Smithereens, which had several FM rock radio hits in the 1980s and early '90s, most famously "Blood and Roses," headlined Saturday's line up.

More music and activism is scheduled for today with folk duo Magpie and the rock band, Days Awake, which has strong ties to Monmouth County. Like Saturday, performers will supply 15 hours of music on three small stages.

Ticket proceeds will benefit the Traveling Environmental Festival, an educational program for school children that's run by the Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater. To date, the program has visited 14 schools and scouting groups.

About 6,000 people are expected to visit the Clearwater Festival.

Among Saturday's visitors was Gov. Corzine, who arrived about 12:30 p.m. and spoke briefly on the main stage about eminent domain, the future of Fort Hancock and sprawl. State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson and Rep. Frank J. Pallone Jr., D-N.J. also stopped by.

The environmental groups were set up away from the main stage, behind tables aligned in two rows and beneath the shade of tall trees. Visitors strolled from one table to the next, picking up pamphlets and asking questions along the way.

Peggy Frasco of Howell said she will no longer eat at Red Lobster after visiting an exhibit that reported the chain buys seafood from Canadian fishermen who participate in an annual harp-seal hunt there. The fishermen, according to activist Alice Bruckenstein, kill the seals to make money off their fur and oils.

"I used to go there all the time, but not any more," said Frasco, 54.

Red Lobster officials have said that the company does not buy products from Newfoundland, where the hunt takes place. Reb Lobster has also been in discussions with the Canadian government about the hunt, officials have said in published reports.

Further down the row of tables, away from the pictures of baby seals, 5-year-old Amanda Schimmel of Hillsborough walked around the inside of a small tent with a monarch butterfly perched on her face.

"This one doesn't want to come off," she announced to the other children in the tent.

They, too, were wearing butterflies.

"I like it on me," she went on to say.

"She's been in there about an hour already," said her grandfather, Carl Rosencrown of Jackson. "She doesn't want to come out."

Jane Young of Belmar helped staff the butterfly tent. Her purpose was to draw attention to the environmental threat faced by monarch butterflies.

Researchers reported in 2003 that key populations of monarchs could lose their winter habitat in Mexico by mid-century, a result of climate change there.

Considering the impact of that obstacle and others, Young, 45, said she is trying to convince people to breed the creatures known for their black-and-orange wings.

"There is a need for people to connect with nature, to save it, for their own sake," she said.

ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and click on this story in the Monmouth section for a link to Clearwater Festival.

Nicholas Clunn: (732) 643-4072 or nclunn@app.com