CapeCodTimes.com – Nantucket dredging targets bass fishing grounds
Ah, Nantucket. Home of the more-bucks-than-brains contingent. These rocket scientists, beach dwellers, are flipped out that the Atlantic is about to eat their mansions. So what is the plan? Dredge up an off-shore sandbar — known as a rip — and dump it on the beach. Brilliant. $23 million about to get blown out to sea by the next big storm.
“NANTUCKET — Island fishermen are worried that a plan to dredge 2.6 million cubic yards of sand from west of Bass Rip Shoal will harm the fertile fishing ground.”The $23 million erosion-control project calls for dumping enough sand to widen the beach and reshape the collapsed bluff along a 3-mile stretch of Nantucket from Sesachacha Pond to Codfish Park.
“The heaviest erosion has occurred along the base of Baxter Road, summer home to some of America’s wealthiest families. Many of the property owners have already spent millions of dollars in an attempt to stem the tide.
“But island fishermen fear the dredging project — the largest public works project in island history paid for by private citizens — could destroy the area known as a rich bass fishing spot and hurt local commerce.”