The federal government will fund $5million for the dredging of Shinnecock Inlet next winter, restoring the dangerously shallow channel that commercial fishing boats use to pass through the inlet. It is informed that the fund will be added to $3.2 million already included in the 2009 federal budget, bringing the federal share of the project funding to $8.2 million.
U.S. Representative Tim Bishop said that the safety of nation waterways requires continual vigilance and maintenance. It is said that the total cost of the dredging is estimated by the Army Corps of Engineers, who would do the actual dredging, at more than $11 million. Mr. Bishop initially requested that some $6.4 million for the project be included in the 2009 budget.
It is told that the dredging project would clear a 10-foot-deep, 200-foot-wide, three-quarter-mile-long channel from the north end of the inlet through the offshore sandbar that crosses the mouth of the inlet. The project could begin as early as next fall. Scott Horowitz, president of the Shinnecock Marlin and Tuna Club, said that this project is very important to the safety of all boaters and the preservation of jobs for our commercial and recreational fishing fleet.
It is fact that shaolin problems has plagued the channel for decades. Because the natural flow of sand along the South Shore is interrupted by the jetties protecting the inlet, a sandbar forms across the mouth of the inlet. The shoaling can create dangerous breaking waves outside the inlet mouth and force commercial boats to enter or exit the inlet only at the high tides. In 2004 the main channel to the inlet was last dredged.
