NEW JERSEY – The Coast Guard aids to navigation team successfully installed eight buoys in Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey.
The buoys were originally removed by the Coast Guard on March 3, 2017, when shoaling reduced the depth of the inlet.
The Coast Guard, the state of New Jersey and the Army Corps of Engineers worked together over the past year to create a safe navigable waterway in Little Egg Inlet, which included dredging the shoaled areas and safely reestablishing the aids to navigation channel for boaters.
“The safety of mariners is our main priority,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Chris Beahr, officer in charge of aids to navigation team Cape May. “When areas become too shallow to safely mark, we have to remove the aids to navigation so mariners know the area is not the same safe depth as before. Buoys 1 and 2 are larger than the other buoys and will provide a better visual signal during the daytime as well as having brighter lights at night.”
The Army Corps of Engineers is currently working with stakeholders to add Little Egg Inlet as a sand borrow site for future dredging and beachfill operations on Long Beach Island. The project’s purpose is to prevent loss of life and reduce damages to infrastructure and homes from future storms.
“While the Army Corps was not directly involved with the recent dredging of Little Egg Inlet, we are encouraged by the success of the recently completed state project. We are committed to support both the Coast Guard and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which acts as our Non Federal Sponsor for the Long Beach Island Storm Damage reduction project,” said Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Keith Watson. “Little Egg Inlet represents the best available sustainable and resilient source of future sand for the project. We plan to use this additional sand borrow source for the critical southern end of Long Beach Island.”
“Reestablishing the Little Egg Inlet channel highlights the efforts of the community, state of New Jersey, Army Corps and the Coast Guard who all came together to address the issue,” said Beahr. “After the state funded the project and worked with the Army Corps to get it completed, we were able to re-establish the navigational aids showing mariners that the channel was safe to transit once again.”
