Coast Guard Replaces Buoys In Little Egg Inlet,

SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY - Little Egg Inlet is ready to go for the upcoming boating season, the Coast Guard says.

Eight buoys were successfully reinstalled by the Coast Guard's navigation team on Monday, said Senior Chief Petty Officer Chris Beahr, the officer in charge of aids to navigation team Cape May.

"Re-establishing the Little Egg Inlet channel highlights the efforts of the community, state of New Jersey, Army Corps and the Coast Guard who all came together to address the issue,” said Beahr. “After the state funded the project and worked with the Army Corps to get it completed, we were able to re-establish the navigational aids showing mariners that the channel was safe to transit once again.”

The buoys were originally removed by the Coast Guard on March 3, 2017, when shoaling reduced the depth of the inlet to levels that were too shallow.

The Coast Guard, the state of New Jersey and the Army Corps of Engineers worked together over the past year to create a safe navigable waterway in Little Egg Inlet. The project included dredging the shoaled areas and safely reestablishing the aids to navigation channel for boaters.

"The safety of mariners is our main priority,” said Beahr. “When areas become too shallow to safely mark, we have to remove the aids to navigation so mariners know the area is not the same safe depth as before. Buoys 1 and 2 are larger than the other buoys and will provide a better visual signal during the daytime as well as having brighter lights at night.”

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The Army Corps is working with stakeholders to add Little Egg Inlet as a sand borrow site for future dredging and beachfill operations on Long Beach Island, in order to prevent loss of life and reduce damages to infrastructure and homes from future storms.

"Little Egg Inlet represents the best available sustainable and resilient source of future sand for the project, said Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Keith Watson. We plan to use this additional sand borrow source for the critical southern end of Long Beach Island."

Photos: Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard