app reader opinion TOPIC OF THE DAY: Beach management

TOPIC OF THE DAY: Beach management
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/4/07
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Shorter jetties cause problems


As a professional captain working out of the Shark River for the past 15 years, I can attest to the deteriorating conditions boaters are confronted with in this area. Something other than the yearly dredging of our inlet needs to be done.

The jetties at the inlet need to be lengthened. While this would help, the real problem is the length of the jetties along Belmar and Spring Lake beaches, not out to sea.

Years ago, before the beach replenishment program began, engineers decided the jetties were the cause of beach erosion. Their solution was to remove the portion of the jetty meeting the sand, creating a gap between the jetty and the beach. This has had no effect at all on the beach erosion.

The naturally existing "long shore current" on the Eastern seaboard flows in a northerly direction, carrying sand and sediment with it.

When this current meets the outgoing tide at the inlet, it is virtually hitting a wall. All of the sand and sediment become deposited at the tip of the southern jetty, creating a sandbar. When the tide comes back into the inlet, it brings with it the newly deposited sand.

Over the years, I have seen sandbars form within 6 feet of the surface. Visit the inlet during an outgoing tide with an easterly breeze of any kind of swell, and you can see the waves stacking up.

It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or killed.

Another serious problem since the jetties no longer meet the beach is the major increase in dangerous rip tides.

Even on a calm day, rip tides are more prevalent than ever before. Any surfer can attest that the flow of water through those gaps when there is a good-sized swell is like being in the rapids of a roaring river.

By reconnecting the jetties to the beach, we can eliminate the costly annual dredging of the Shark River Inlet, and we can make the beaches and boating inlet safer for everyone.

Mike "Bert" Rothenberg

BELMAR