Barnegate Bay Salvage

[njdiver]

Written by Wayne Parry Associated Press

Mar. 02 thenewsstar.com

MANTOLOKING, N.J. — On the surface, things look calm and placid. Just beneath the waterline, however, it's a different story.

Cars and sunken boats. Patio furniture. Pieces of docks. Entire houses. A grandfather clock, deposited in a marsh a mile from solid land. Hot tubs. Tons of sand. All displaced by Superstorm Sandy.

"We did a cleanup three weeks ago. Then when we went back the other day, you could still see junk coming up in the wash," said Paul Harris, president of the New Jersey Beach Buggy Association, which helps take care of beaches on which the group goes surf fishing. "They go and clean it again, and two days later, you have the same thing again. There's nothing you can do about it; you can't vacuum the ocean."

Coastal areas of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut are racing to remove untold tons of debris from waters hardest hit by the Oct. 29 storm before the summer swimming and boating seasons begin — two of the main reasons people flock there each year and the underpinning of the region's multibillion-dollar tourist industry.

The sunken debris presents an urgent safety issue. Swimmers could cut themselves on submerged junk, step on one of thousands of boardwalk nails ripped loose, or suffer neck or spinal injuries diving into solid objects. Boats could hit debris, pitching their occupants overboard, or in severe cases, sinking.

The cleanup won't be easy, fast or cheap.

"The amount of debris that needs to be removed is mind-boggling," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said, ticking off the statistics in his state: 1,400 vessels sunk, broken loose or destroyed during the storm.

In just one shore town alone, Mantoloking, 58 buildings were washed into Barnegat Bay, along with eight vehicles, and a staggering amount of sand carried from the ocean beaches into the bay.

"Everything you can imagine is sitting in our waterways," he said.

Barnegat Bay is likely to have some no-go zones in place for at least part of the spring and summer as cleanup work progresses. "Big Al" Wutkowski, a locally famous striped-bass fisherman who volunteers as the Barnegat Bay Guardian for the American Littoral Society environmental group, is worried about what still lurks beneath the waves.

"When people start putting their boats back in the water in April, I know they're going to start hitting stuff," he said. "It's impossible not to hit stuff. It's also a lot shallower in places now. A lot of the lagoons are filled in with sand. People can't get their boats in or out."

Florida-based contractor AshBritt Environmental removed 42 boats from New Jersey waterways in recent weeks. Others were corralled by the State Police, or by private salvage companies acting on behalf of owners.

Property owners are not being held financially responsible for debris that washed or blew off their property into waterways unless they hire a private company to retrieve a boat they plan to repair and keep, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The state, which issue contracts last week for the water cleanup work, plans to seek full reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of $60 billion in Sandy relief approved by Congress.

Much of the work will involve cranes atop barges that pluck the largest debris from the bottom. Divers could be used for smaller pieces. Once that's done, many waterways will need to be dredged, with the sand placed back on beaches.

The private owners of an amusement pier that collapsed in Seaside Heights, N.J., pitching the Jet Star roller coaster into the ocean, are working with insurers to devise a plan to dismantle the ride and get it out of the ocean.

Seaside Heights also plans to send teams of divers to scour the ocean bottom in popular swimming areas before letting people back into the water, fearing parts of the wooden pier, metal pieces from boardwalk rides and other debris still linger in the ocean. Cars from the pier's amusement rides were found on beaches as far as 8 miles away in the days after the storm.

The Polar Bear Plunge, in which swimmers briefly dash into and out of the frigid surf to raise money for charity, was moved this year from Seaside Heights to Long Branch, a beach 24 miles to the north where hidden debris wasn't a concern.

http://enviropoliticsblog.blogspot.c...orces-big.html

[Dollar Bill]

Thanks for the post. Driving through Mantalokin for the first time yesterday I was thinking man all those missing houses must be in the bay in one form or another. It will be a nightmare boating in the bay this year. Sandy sucked!!

[SaltLife1980]

Scary.. I guess when we go back in the water in 3 weeks we are going to have to go slow and make sure the channel we travel out is not filled in..

The last thing anyone needs is to hit something in the water after we just got slammed by Sandy with damage..

[Chico]

In Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda a lot of the debris was marked with floats so that boaters would be warned and they would be easily identified/found when the clean up crews came by, some took over a year to clear up but at least they were located and marked.

[Fish Stix]

Yeah, end of January we hit a roof or something. It was just under the surface. No damage was done though. But definately have to keep an extra eye out ...

[SaltLife1980]

Originally Posted by Fish Stix Sportfishing

Yeah, end of January we hit a roof or something. It was just under the surface. No damage was done though. But definately have to keep an extra eye out ...

Glad no damage was done! that is the scary part.. Im sure you were traveling a known route and bumped into it.. Never know what is down there now esp since Sandy hit..

[Reel Class]

Barnegat bay is an obstacle course. As the article said the bay is extremely shallow in spots, especially where the break throughs occurred.

[flyersnfluke]

The morning after the storm I was in port monmouth and belford looking for storm pushed birds (there were lots of pomerine jaegers, which are normally well offshore, as well as other pelagic bird species). While scanning the bay there were numerous peaks of roofs floating around, likely just parts of roofs, but quite large none-the-less. I assume these were from houses lost from port monmouth up through union beach.

In speaking with a few of the workers from sandy hook, within one tide change after a cleanup there's hunks of debris back on the shore. Be careful out there when boating, and keep a keen eye out.

[captmark]

Guys the upper part of the bay between Mantoloking and Herring Island is pretty much filled in with beach sand, you can not navigate a boat between markers #4 and #12, you may be able to walk across at low tide, but between the sand and the 1 house that is visabale its not passable. You can go the around the Island to the west, and we have not seen any real debris below the bridge, but we may soon. Go slow first few times out and be careful.

[CaptJohn]

After spending the past 5 years in Baywood Marina and Hinckley Yacht Basin I have made the move to Crystal Point just for this reason. I was worried about the debris and getting to the manasquan inlet. Although the marina's on the river where hit, they don't seem as bad as the ones around Mantoloking.