A new hope to boost the Outer Banks fishing industry to new heights
A big dredge with a dainty name could supercharge the Outer Banks fishing industry.
The vessel named “Miss Katie” will offer the best chance in decades of clearing the sand that constantly fills up the Oregon Inlet, the only way for boats to access the ocean between Hatteras and Hampton Roads.
The vessel is under construction with expectations it will be finished by next spring.
The inlet is crucial to Coast Guard rescue service, commercial and charter fishing and the recreational boating industry of the Outer Banks, said Dare County Commissioner Jim Tobin in a video released Tuesday about the vessel.
“This really affects our recreational fishing and especially our commercial fishing business,” he said. “We have lost just about all of our commercial fishing fleet because of shoaling issues.”
The dredge also will be used on the Hatteras Inlet between Ocracoke and Hatteras Island.
Dare County leads the state for value in seafood harvested, at about $14 million annually, according to the county.
A 2014 study showed the inlet’s annual economic impact at nearly $550 million, including contributions from boat building, seafood packing, tax revenues and tournament fishing. That figure could be $1 billion if the inlet were dredged to its permitted size of 14 feet deep and 400 feet wide, Tobin said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has kept the channel at that size 15 percent of the time over the past 30 years, according to the county. The agency needs an available dredge, decent weather and enough federal funding. It works to maintain dozens of inlets and waterways on the entire East Coast.
Oregon Inlet is one of the most dynamic waterways in the nation, in terms of how sand is shifted around and deposited in the waterway by powerful currents.
“You can’t dig it out and walk away because it’s going to fill right back in,” said Harry Schiffman, vice chairman of the Oregon Inlet Task Force, a county committee that will oversee the dredging.
The county contracted with EJE Dredging of Greenville, North Carolina, to build and operate the Miss Katie, according to the video. The name and a rendition of the boat was unveiled Monday at the Dare County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The dredge will be similar to a Corps of Engineers dredge named Murden that’s 156 feet long and cost about $22 million to build, Schiffman said. It holds about 51 truckloads of sand.
Dredging the inlet costs an estimated $9 million a year, said Brent Johnson, Dare County project manager. The county will pay $3 million and a state fund set aside for waterway maintenance will pay the rest.
The dredging contractor hired Conrad Shipyard LLC of Morgan City, Louisiana, to build the vessel.
The new 2.8-mile long Basnight Bridge crosses the inlet. Boat captains have to navigate through two trouble spots, Schiffman said. The route becomes shallow in the sound west of the bridge and at a sandbar less than a mile east of the bridge in the ocean.
Schiffman and dozens of others have lobbied for 40 years to get jetties placed at the inlet and more federal funding toward dredging. The new dredge might finally be the answer.
“This is the next best thing we could come up with,” he said. “I think it’s a wonderful project. Time will be the teacher.”
Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com
