Dan Radel 

Asbury Park Press/USA TODAY NETWORK JERSEY - 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s 56-foot split-hull hopper dredge Murden will stay put and resume pumping the sand that has built up on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the Manasquan Inlet.

Army Corps’ Philadelphia District spokesperson Stephen Rochette said the Murden will resume dredging operations possibly this weekend, depending on sea conditions, and remain for one to two weeks. The Shore was facing the effects of Tropical Storm Debby on Friday, which brought gusty winds and strong seas to area on Friday.

In response to rapid shoaling on the inside of the inlet’s south jetty, the Army Corps completed hydrographic surveys on Aug. 6. The Army Corps said the surveys have been shared with the U.S. Coast Guard and are available to mariners on the Army Corps’ website.

Additionally, the Murden did complete two cycles of dredging on Aug. 6, but work was stopped due to a coastal storm.

The Murden, which is owned and operated by the Army Corps’ Wilmington District, was already stationed on the Manasquan Inlet but was doing work on the Shark River. It has now been diverted to the Manasquan Inlet.

“I’m grateful to the USACE Wilmington, New England and New York Districts for their flexibility and rearranging dredging operations at other locations to enable this work to move forward this weekend as opposed to later in the month when it was originally scheduled,” said Army Corps’ Philadelphia District Commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Beeman. “I also want to thank our survey crews and the Murden crew for their efforts.”

The Army Corps received several calls for help from stakeholders, including U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., after the shoaling in the Manasquan Inlet returned for the second time in three years. Fishing boat captains who use the inlet daily to leave the Manasquan River and enter the Atlantic Ocean said the shoal was the worst it has ever been.

Capt. William Egeter Jr. of the Dauntless party boat described it as a “beach” that reached out to about one third of the mouth of the inlet, presenting a navigational hazard to boaters.

As far as the cause of the shoaling, the Army Corps said Manasquan Inlet is dynamic and conditions within the inlet can rapidly change. Significant shoaling has frequently occurred within the Inlet and often dissipates due to changing wind and wave conditions. The conditions this summer were similar to 2022, the last time the shoal formed, with persistent south wind and swells.

Some critics of beach replenishment say those projects have resulted in excess sand drifting north. The Army Corps last completed beach replenishment south of Manasquan Inlet on the Barnegat Peninsula in 2019, according to Rochette. That project ended one mile south of Manasquan Inlet, Rochette said. He said the majority of the sand was placed south of what the Corps called the “nodal zone,” where the dominant transport of sand shifts.

“The fact is the fillet — the area south of the jetty — along the south jetty in Point Pleasant Beach has historically been full prior to and after the beachfill, and in time periods with persistent southerlies, the sand can move quickly into the inlet,” Rochette said.

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

The above article was published in the Aug. 12, 2024 print edition of the Asbury Park Press on page 3, and can be found online at:
https://www.app.com/story/news/local/land-environment/2024/08/09/manasquan-inlet-shoal-us-army-corps-of-engineers-murden/74738065007/

            The Army Corps’ action comes after Smith initiated conversations with Army Corps officials and local boat captains over the Aug. 3-4 weekend as the shoaling began to develop. In a follow-up letter to Army Corps Commander Lt. Col. Jeffrey Beeman on Monday, Aug. 5, Smith urged the Corps to take immediate action to mitigate the growing navigational hazard. As a result, the Corps performed a survey of the inlet floor earlier today and immediately began removing the build-up of sand.

            Manasquan Inlet, which is categorized as a dynamic inlet with constantly shifting sands created by the currents, has been prone to shoaling before. When similar safety hazards plagued the Manasquan Inlet in August 2022, Smith secured an emergency survey of the inlet from the Army Corps in addition to continued, close monitoring of the river floor to ensure the channel remained navigable.