I think it is for dredging the sand out of the channel and also the harbor. It goes by the black pipe you can see along part of East Beach to an outflow midway down the beach. It's a twice-annual operation because of the location of the artificial harbor: the current builds up sand at the end of the brakewater, creating the sandspit, which overflows into the harbor, blocking the access for larger boats, including the CoastGuard.
the barge? it's a dredge. it's sucking up the sand that the currents flow into the mouth of our harbor, otherwise it will seal up like it used to be. many moons ago....we as humans completely messed with the geography of our coastline. so periodically, the coast tries to take it back. Bird is right, but it's not always twice annually, it's when needed. Its essentially a giant vacuum. The sand and rocks and debris that gets sucked up, are piped down near the rock outcropping on west beach then it moves further towards east beach. if we didn't do this when needed, we wouldnt be able to enter the harbor. Sterns would be only partially on water and the lower SBCC parkinglots would be where the shoreline is.
This current dredge operator seems more efficient than the previous one, and it is electric instead of diesel, so there is no exhaust smell to compete with the pelican poop smell from the sandspit. They sucked away the sandspit in less than a week.
@979, yes totally. i noticed this too on Tuesday evening. Much more quiet and the op seemed to be moving it around quickly. You can hear the sand and gravel moving through the pipeline really fast. Kinda cool. He was out in the middle of the harbor entrance around 830pm
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Jan 18, 2022 12:52 PMI think it is for dredging the sand out of the channel and also the harbor. It goes by the black pipe you can see along part of East Beach to an outflow midway down the beach. It's a twice-annual operation because of the location of the artificial harbor: the current builds up sand at the end of the brakewater, creating the sandspit, which overflows into the harbor, blocking the access for larger boats, including the CoastGuard.
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Jan 18, 2022 03:03 PMthe barge? it's a dredge. it's sucking up the sand that the currents flow into the mouth of our harbor, otherwise it will seal up like it used to be. many moons ago....we as humans completely messed with the geography of our coastline. so periodically, the coast tries to take it back. Bird is right, but it's not always twice annually, it's when needed. Its essentially a giant vacuum. The sand and rocks and debris that gets sucked up, are piped down near the rock outcropping on west beach then it moves further towards east beach. if we didn't do this when needed, we wouldnt be able to enter the harbor. Sterns would be only partially on water and the lower SBCC parkinglots would be where the shoreline is.
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Jan 18, 2022 09:09 PMThis current dredge operator seems more efficient than the previous one, and it is electric instead of diesel, so there is no exhaust smell to compete with the pelican poop smell from the sandspit. They sucked away the sandspit in less than a week.
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Jan 19, 2022 09:08 AM@979, yes totally. i noticed this too on Tuesday evening. Much more quiet and the op seemed to be moving it around quickly. You can hear the sand and gravel moving through the pipeline really fast. Kinda cool. He was out in the middle of the harbor entrance around 830pm
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Jan 19, 2022 11:14 AMIt would be nice if they would wash that thing down now and then, the bird poo is nasty.