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Shifting sands clog Oregon Inlet

Submitted by scharrison on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 12:04pm

Threatening NC's fishing industry:

Although the inlet has remained passable for charter fishing vessels and small commercial boats, larger fishing trawlers, which draw about 11 feet, have not been able to safely transit the inlet for weeks — a seasonal hazard that is typically relieved when the wind shifts in the late spring and summer storms blow through.

Here's what two years of shifting sands can do:

That's some crazy stuff right there.

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What a nightmare

Submitted by scharrison on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 12:18pm.

The inlet still wants to move south, Riggs said, but the groin on the south side has changed the natural movement of sand. So the sand builds up in the channel that doesn’t want to be there. Part of the recent problems, he said, likely stem from a series of smaller storms that allowed sand to accumulate.

If we get a big storm coming through, that storm will probably blow it out,” he said. “An inlet breathes. When a storm comes through, it opens up to let it in and let it out. The problem is when you jetty an inlet, you stop that process.”

Read the whole article. I'm not sure if it's a valiant effort or pure folly.