Posted on July 12, 2021
OCEAN CITY, Md. – Congressman Andy Harris says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Baltimore District is ahead of schedule on a project that will dredge out shoaled areas in the Ocean City Inlet that he says have been raising concerns amongst both boaters and fishermen.
Jim Frazetti was in Ocean City on Friday to catch tuna in the weekend’s tournament, not to catch his boat on sand.
“I fish with a sport fishing boat called Covered Up Sportfishing,” Frazetti says. “I also fish with Talking Trash, which is 58-foot Gilligan, so they’re big boats and they’ve got big hauls and they’ll need deep water to try to get out in the inlet.”
The USACE Baltimore District keeps the inlet 100 to 200 feet wide and 10 feet deep with routine maintenance projects. Navigation Program Manager Graham McAllister says the inlet was last dredged in January, but crews will be re-carving the route it provides for fishing, commerce, recreation and transportation.
“We’re going to be removing underwater hazards commonly known as shoals,” McAllister says. “They develop naturally over time and the Ocean City Inlet has a history of rapidly and periodically shoaling in.”
McAllister says $500,000 in federal money is paying to maintain the inlet in 2021. The upcoming project will remove 4 to 5 thousand cubic yards of material, which will be pumped to the north end of Assateague, replenishing the beach.
The inlet was created by a storm in 1933. Jetties were created to preserve it, but McAllister says they interfered with sand migration, which prompted the Assateague Bypass Project that’s on track for more dredging in August.
“Sand that would’ve been moved naturally can now be moved through the dredge itself,” McAllister says.
Crews will be working in the inlet from July 26th to July 28th. Congressman Harris’s office says the Assateague Bypass project will take 3-4 weeks in August
