Dan Radel

Asbury Park Press

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' dredge boat Murden has vacuumed up about 20,000 cubic yards of sand out of the Manasquan Inlet so far as it works to dig out the dangerous shoal that formed this summer.

That converts to about 64 million pounds of wet sand removed from the inlet since the work began in earnest this past weekend. The job is not complete, so the final total figures to be higher once the shoal is completely removed.

The Murden, which is a 156-foot split hull hopper dredge, has a capacity of 500 cubic yards, said Army Corps' Philadelphia District spokesperson Stephen Rochette. However, for ease of transport, they're only filling it up with 400 cubic yards of sand per cycle.

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 to the Point Pleasant Beach side of the inlet for the second time in three years. The last time was 2022.

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 the shoal as a "beach" that reached out to about one third of the mouth of the inlet, presenting a navigational hazard to boaters.

The Army Corps and locally elected leaders are also warning people to stay off the shoal.

The sand is being deposited just offshore of Manasquan's Riddle Way beach, which is four beaches north of the inlet. Rochette said they chose that spot because it’s relatively close to the inlet for quick transport, and secondly because the sand drifts north from there, so it supports Manasquan beaches without going back into the inlet. Lastly, it is within the ‘depth of closure,’ meaning it’s within the zone that will eventually migrate toward the beach.

Rochette said if they place the sand outside the 'depth of closure," it basically won't reach the beach.

What's taking so long?Ortley Beach, other Ocean County towns badly need new beach sand

 

The likely cause of the shoal has been the persistent south wind and swells this summer, which pushes the sand in, according to the Army Corps. It was the same dynamic that likely caused the shoaling in 2022, the Army Corps said.

"(In) time periods with persistent southerlies, the sand can move quickly into the inlet," Rochette told the press in a previous story.

 

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.