OCEANSIDE: Coast Guard warns of harbor sandbar hazard
The U.S. Shore Guard has issued a warning to mariners to be wary of a sandbar at the mouth of Oceanside Harbor , but urban district officials and the Army Corps of Engineers said the situation is not so dangerous that it needs immediate heed.
The Army Corps advice is to "hold off on any dredging until after the winter storm season," said the mechanism's spokesman Jay Field.
"The concern is the winter storms may bring in more sand and there would be more shoaling," Field said.
The experimental plan is to wait until April, when the Army Corps of Engineers does its annual dredging of the harbor, said conurbation harbor and beaches director Frank Quan.
The sandbar formed when fierce waves from an beginning September storm piled up sand at the harbor entrance.
The danger is that waves break over the sandbar, creating abrupt surf which can batter boats as they enter the harbor.
There's also a risk that boats with a deep draft could run aground.
The soonest a dredge could steer a course for it to Oceanside is February, which is midway through the winter storm season, Quan said Monday.
All along the gravel seashore, crew members could be seen mending their patchwork of well-worn green nylon nets, as row-boat captains prepared their open-hull aluminum skiffs for the highly anticipated sockeye run. Nushagak Nub village in Bristol Bay is
