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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 3
November 2007
North Beach break threatens Chatham fleet
CHATHAM, MA – As commercial fishermen will attest, the ability to adapt is key to survival. The Chatham fleet has adapted to changes in fish stocks, ever-tighter fishing regulations, and sky-high fuel prices, but it may eventually face the ultimate test of adaptability, thanks to the new inlet in North Beach.
In April, a two-day northeast storm punched a hole in the barrier beach, which is also known as Nauset Beach, creating the first inlet in that spot in 150 years.
At the time, experts believed the wash-over would fill itself in again, but the breach has continued to widen. It is now expected eventually to become the main inlet to Pleasant Bay and Chatham Harbor, overtaking the inlet by the Chatham lighthouse created by the 1987 barrier beach break.
Residents of Chatham called a special town meeting over the summer to consider a proposal to fill the inlet with dredged sand, though doing so would require permits from more than a dozen agencies, including the Cape Cod National Seashore, which opposed the move. In the end, it was probably the $4 million price tag that earned the dredging proposal a sound defeat at the special town meeting.
Likely to worsen
Coastal geologists are the first to admit uncertainty about the future of Chatham Harbor. But under the most likely scenario, shoaling will increase in the years and decades ahead, making navigation more and more difficult.
Under a worst-case scenario, Aunt Lydia’s Cove, where many of Chatham’s commercial boats tie up, eventually would be landlocked, according to Chatham Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon.
“I’ve been criticized for sounding like a Chicken Little on this one,” Keon admitted.
But he explained that the town’s experience points to the following scenario: The increased tidal flow through the new inlet causes less flow through the main inlet by the lighthouse, causing more shoaling on the outer bar there. The change means that, over time, more and more dredging will be required to maintain a navigable channel to the south, which has always been problematic.
“When we get six feet of water at dead low water at the shallowest point, that’s pretty good,” Keon said.
Even a slight increase in the rate of shoaling on the outer bar would be a problem, he noted, saying, “We don’t have much room to give up.”
Increased shoaling to the south is only half the problem. With a more direct flow to Pleasant Bay, the tide begins to bypass Chatham Harbor, depositing sediment from the north inside the new inlet, opposite Minister’s Point.
“I don’t know how fast that will begin to shoal up,” Keon said.
But when it does, it will make it difficult for boats from Aunt Lydia’s Cove to reach the new inlet.
“The new inlet isn’t even close to being navigable,” Keon said.
Wait and see
Gillnetter Tim Linnell of Chatham said he’s not worried about shoaling in the near-term. For the past three years, access through the main channel has been pretty good, he said. Before that, many of the boats in the fleet had to time their departures to coincide with high tide, even if that meant leaving in the middle of the night.
A member of the town’s waterways committee, Linnell said he doesn’t expect any drastic changes in either inlet anytime soon. Less water moving through the main channel means less opportunity for shoaling there, he said.
Longtime Chatham fisherman Jack Koski, chairman of the town’s Aunt Lydia’s Cove Committee, said the boiling tidal currents once common in front of the lighthouse appear to have abated somewhat.
“I think this break up north has taken some of the severity and the ferocity,” Koski said.
In the spring, the county dredge Codfish removed a visible shoal forming in front of the fish pier, and the federal dredge Currituck came and further dredged the area in June. Since that time, there is no evidence that the shoal has been rebuilding, Koski said.
At high water, the unmarked channel in the new inlet is deep enough for many boats in the Chatham fleet, though a bar on the inside of the inlet makes the water shallow enough for wading at low tide. Since most boats from the Aunt Lydia’s Cove fleet fish to the southeast, it does not offer a navigational shortcut for most fishermen.
Koski said he can’t predict what the future holds for Aunt Lydia’s Cove, but he’s a bit more optimistic than some. When northeasterly gales return late this fall and early winter, the picture will become much clearer, he said.
“When you have a good three- to four-day northeasterly, that’s going to tell you everything you want to know,” Koski said.
Options
Keon said it is possible that the main inlet will remain viable for many years. But if dire predictions about Aunt Lydia’s Cove prove true, the implications are serious.
The town-owned fish pier is the largest fish unloading and processing facility on the Lower Cape and recently underwent a top-to-bottom reconstruction that cost the town and the state more than $1.2 million. For commercial fishermen, it would be an enormous challenge finding a new place to offload their catch.
“That’s where it really gets problematic,” Keon said.
The two other obvious candidates in Chatham are Stage Harbor and Ryder’s Cove, the latter of which is within reach of the new inlet. But Ryder’s Cove has no suitable offloading dock or other infrastructure, “and even if we wanted to build it, where would we?” Keon said.
There is a triangular parcel of town-owned land on the water attached to the former MCI-Marconi wireless receiving station in Chathamport, but there would be huge hurdles to be overcome for that land to be used, according to Keon. Not only is the water shallow in front of the parcel, there are a number of shallow areas in Bassing Harbor and by Minister’s Point, making it very challenging for larger boats to transit the area.
Stage Harbor?
A more obvious choice for many commercial fishermen would be Stage Harbor, which is already used by a number of commercial boats. A stable natural harbor with relatively deep water for moorings, it already has privately owned offloading docks and an ice plant. Its entrance channel can be kept clear with regular dredging, though access is poor this season, according to Keon.
Commercial boats accessing the open ocean from Stage Harbor must steam nine-and-a-half miles south to round Monomoy Point and another 11 miles north to reach Lighthouse Beach.
“The distance is considerably greater,” Keon said.
Also, the infrastructure in Stage Harbor would need to be significantly increased to accommodate the Aunt Lydia’s Cove fleet. With shellfish fishermen, recreational boaters, yacht clubs, and private marinas all sharing Stage Harbor, the potential for conflicts would be even greater.
Koski said there are many members of the Aunt Lydia’s Cove fleet, including himself, who simply won’t fish from Stage Harbor. He wouldn’t elaborate on the reasons but said they are more social than scientific.
“Everybody who’s down in (Aunt Lydia’s) Cove is going to fish out of that cove until they pack it in,” Koski said.
For his part, Linnell said the new inlet isn’t a problem that keeps him up at night.
“Fishing regulations are going to close down the fishery long before the new inlet will,” he said.
Alan Pollock
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