Story by Marcy Shortuse
Photos by Dusty Hopkins,Skip Perry
and Caroline Clabaugh
There was quite a flurry of activity down at
the beach accesses this June, including a
handful of men in bright green safety
jackets and strange podiums with signs that read
“vibration monitor.” Daily sea turtle surveys were
being taken by experts hired by the United States
Army Corps of Engineers, giant pipes were being
laid ... it was an exciting time for those who had
watched the beach erode, little by little, until
there wasn’t much left in many places.
Weeks Marine of Cranford, N.J. was the
dredging company that was hired to place
approximately 161,000 cubic yards of sand on
our eroded beach – 1.4 miles of new shore in
and north of the historic district, and
approximately 0.4 mile at the south end. That,
USACE said, would bring us to a full restoration
point. The company also tilled the beach and
mapped the hard bottom, performed
construction/vibration control and monitoring
and did some turbidity and environmental species
monitoring.
Hard bottom monitoring includes surveys of
the bottom and extensive information gathering
to determine the best places to dredge the sand.
They also performed additional mapping research
regarding underwater resources and topography
that provides habitat, food and shelter to smaller