Approximately eight miles (13 km) in length, it is surrounded by the communities of Middletown (including the namesake Navesink CDP), Red Bank, Fair Haven, and Rumson.

In 1665, John Hance was one of the settlers who negotiated with the Navesinks of the Lenni Lenape to purchase the lands of this peninsula and the immediate surroundings through the Monmouth Patent.

Today the river is a major recreational resource for powerboating, crabbing, fishing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, bird watching, swimming, and rowing.

As a tidal estuary flowing into the Shrewsbury River at Sea Bright, continuing into Sandy Hook Bay and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean, the Navesink provides excellent and scenic fishing opportunities for species such as bluefish (smaller bluefish are known as snappers), striped bass, weakfish and fluke, blackfish, pufferfish, kingfish, spot especially in the spring and fall.

Local authorities enforced a requirement on marine traffic to maintain a safe distance from the pod, and even issued tickets to boats that were deemed hazardous to the dolphins' safety.