Sandbar In Manasquan Inlet Raising Concerns For Boaters

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — Boaters are urging officials to take action to remove a sandbar that has formed at the mouth of the Manasquan Inlet, narrowing the access for boats coming in and out of the inlet.

Photos posted on the Barnegat Bay Island, NJ Facebook page on Monday showed kids fishing from the sand near the mouth of the inlet on the Point Pleasant Beach side.

Manasquan Inlet, which is 450 feet across and about 11 feet deep, is one of the entry points for boats that want to sail down the Intracoastal Waterway, a 3,000-mile stretch of natural and some man-made inland waterways that stretch from New England to the Gulf of Mexico.

The inlet also is a significant passage for commercial fishing boats and sportfishing boats — personal craft, charter boats and the party boats (also known as head boats) that take recreational anglers out — that sail through it daily.

It's a busy waterway even on a slow day, and to have shoaling reduce the entrance can pose problems for boats passing each other in and out of the inlet, especially on days when the wind whips the waves in the inlet.

Nicole Bogan, a member of the Bogan family whose name is synonymous with Manasquan Inlet fishing, was urging people to contact U.S. Rep. Chris Smith to try to speed up action.

"It’s happening fast and it's getting bad fast," she wrote on a public Facebook post about the shoaling. She said the family's captains, including Howard Bogan Jr. of the 125-foot Jamaica, say they have "never seen anything like it in the Manasquan Inlet before."

"They watch and go out of the inlet all day and every day," she wrote. "Right now it's getting worse by the day."

"We've reached out to the Army Corps of Engineers and are awaiting their response," Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra said.

The Army Corps is doing dredging projects in the area. An email to the Army Corps Philadelphia office was not immediately returned.

A message left for the U.S. Coast Guard public information office for the Delaware Bay sector, which includes the Manasquan Inlet Station, was not immediately returned.