Montauk Inlet to Undergo Emergency Dredging to Free up Fishing Port

After numerous complaints from commercial fishermen and public officials, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it will conduct emergency maintenance dredging at Montauk Inlet, the largest fishing point in New York State.

The Army Corps said the dredging will take place later this winter. The Army Corps originally had said it would dredge the inlet last fall, and that it could not change that date “due to current environmental windows, time necessary to obtain required town-cost share funding and finalization of contract package,”

The decision is great news for commercial fishermen. At least five commercial fishing boats have had to offload fish in Rhode Island because of the dangerous possibility of shoaling in the inlet. Those boats are based in Montauk and the captains of the vessels have made their feelings known to the Army Corps of Engineers.

They have complained that the work is already late and that vessels have been tied up for hours waiting for high tides so they can get through the inlet. An Army Corps survey showed that some sections of the inlet are as shallow as 3.6 feet on the waterway central and eastern edge. The inlet was last dredged in 2018.

“What are you waiting for?” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. Brady said Montauk port has already lost some $100,000 in revenue because of the situation.

Additionally, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, and U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) also weighed in with the Army Corps.

Schumer wrote a letter to the Corps pointing to the “critically shallow depth” of the inlet and the “dangerous situation for maritime vessels.

The Army Corps said after that it has “received the needed emergency declaration to begin the work. It said also it has found “no adverse impacts” to any endangered species. Some 10,000 cubic yards of sand are to be dredged from the inlet.

“This dredging and placement west of the west jetty is currently anticipated to occur during the winter” months of this year, the Army Corps said. It added that the work is subject to the availability of funds and a possible public hearing before any work is to begin.

Montauk Inlet is normally associated with fishing fleets steaming through the waters to unload their catches. A number of boats are blocked from getting through, forcing commercial fishermen to offload at Point Judith, in Rhode Island or other East Coast ports.

The problem is caused by shoaling, which occurs when storms place sand and other sediment, which piles up in the inlet. The more it builds up, the harder it becomes for ships to navigate.

“The inlet has been too shallow for our boats to get through,” Amanda Jones, director of operations at Inlet Seafood and co-owner of Jones Fisheries, told Dan’s Papers. “This affects our entire local economy.”

Landing fish in Rhode Island could result in New York State getting lower fishing quotas. The Jones fishing family owns the largest fishing boat operating out of Montauk.

Local estimates are that some 500 boats per day use the inlet during peak season and that tens of millions of dollars of fish have been landed in the past dozen years.

Some boats have sat just outside the inlet for hours because they can’t come in during low tide.  One said he had waited three- and one-half hours. Fisherman report having trouble getting into the inlet to re-fuel.

“It’s an extremely dangerous situation,” Jones said.

East Hampton town councilman David Lys told Dan’s Papers that “multiple” vessels have had trouble getting through the inlet in the past few weeks. Lys and other officials have been in touch with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“The town board is supportive of the fishing and food community,” Lys said. “We look forward to working with them to resolve this.”

Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine has written to the Corps, asking them “to utilize emergency funding to dredge Montauk Inlet and deepen the channel to at least 17 feet, from its current 12.

“While dredging is scheduled for the inlet sometime in the future, the problem is now,” Romaine wrote. “Some of the Montauk fishing fleet have been landing their catch in Port Judith, R.I. rather than risk the passage of the Montauk Inlet. This has economic consequences for New York State.”