By Dan Radel, APP Staff

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will return to Manasquan Inlet next week to do an emergency survey of the growing sandbar issue, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

A sandbar, or shoal, has been forming in the inlet for most of the summer, which the Corps said is likely being caused by the strong southerly wave energy that the Jersey Shore has been experiencing this summer. The shoal has become a concern of fishing boat captains who navigate the inlet daily. Local officials are also concerned with people walking out onto the shoal during low tide.

The Corps has twice dredged the federal navigational channel this summer. However, Smith wrote a letter and held a teleconference with fishing captains and the Corps urging the agency to return and do another survey of the waterway, which connects the Manasquan River with the Atlantic ocean. Smith said the shifting sands in the Inlet are not new, but the "oversized low-tide sandbar in the inlet has not been seen in our lives."

 

“We are gravely concerned that it will pose a serious hazard to navigation,” said Smith, whose congressional district includes both sides of the inlet in Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach. “We appreciate their response.”

More: Manasquan Inlet sand piles up, creates big shoal to worry boaters

In the 1920s, the inlet completely sanded in after the Point Pleasant Canal was dug, forcing the Corps to stabilize the waterway and construct the present inlet.

The survey is expected to help the Corps better evaluate the most recent developments and any action that must be taken for the safety of commercial and recreational boaters on the inlet, Smith said.  

In addition to the sandbar that is visible at low tide, Smith urged the Corps to study the channel depth throughout the inlet, noting that if the matter continues to escalate, larger vessels, including the commercial fishing fleet, may experience groundings. According to the information Smith collected from local fishing industry members, there was at least one spot in the federal channel that was only nine feet deep where some of the larger commercial vessels require up to 12 feet of depth to safely navigate without risk of grounding.

"The Corps was just in there and cleared the inlet and the sandbar is back. If it gets too much bigger its going to be a problem," said Capt. Howard Bogan Jr., operator of the Big Jamaica party boat.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. 

This article ran in the Asbury Park Press on Aug. 17 2022 and can be found online at:
Manasquan NJ inlet shoal: Army Corps to survey sandbar (app.com)